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KALM'S ENGLAND. 



A 2 




lorra America, 

Academiens &efaUnitt0f 

CO) 

Publici foflnafc, 
§6rtdttat> 

PEHR^KALM, 

Oeconomiae Profeflbrt Abo, fomt £et>amotof 
^Ottgl ©wnpa^etei^ap^Academieu, 

Tom. I. 

ttlzb ^ongl. mojrte 3Uernabt<jtf e Privilegio. 

STOCKHOLM^ 
SxjKft p& LARS SALVH foffaaD I7f3- 



(^jo^w fi rVcnsxso 



',OW/ 



KALM'S 



ACCOUNT OF HIS 



VISIT TO ENGLAND 



ON HIS WAY TO AMERICA IN 1748. 



Translated by JOSEPH LUCAS. 



WITH TWO MAPS, AND SEVERAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 



MACMILLAN AND CO. *S— - 

AND NEW YORK. 
1892. 

All rights reserved. 



LONDON : 

DIPROSE, BATEMAN AND CO., PRINTERS, 

SHEFFIELD STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C. 









LIFE OF KALM. 



Pehr Kalm was born in March, 1716, in the Swedish 
Province of Angermanland, three months after the 
death of his father, Gabriel Kalm, Minister at Nerpes, 
in Osterbotn. His mother's name was Catharina Ross. 
Kalm became a student at Abo in 1735, where Professor 
Brovallius directed his attention to Natural History. 

Brovallius introduced him to Baron Bjelke, who not 
only received him into his own house, but sent him to 
travel ; in 1740 to Tavastland, Savolax, and Karelen, 
and in 1741 to Upland and Vestmanland. On setting 
out for the latter he entered as a student at Upsala, 
under the guidance and instruction of the great 
Linnaeus. In 1742 he travelled through Vestgotha 
and Bohuslan, and published his " Vestgotha och 
Bohuslanska Resa " in 1746. In 1743 he visited the 
Skjargard, or Archipelago on both sides of Stockholm, 
in Roslagen and Sodermanland. 

His contributions to the Flora Svecica of Linnaeus 



VI 11 LIFE OF KALM. 

from these home journeys were honorably acknowledged 
by Linnaeus (De Peloria, Ups. 1744). 

In 1744 he went with Baron Bjelke through Russia 
and part of the Ukrain ; and in 1745 explored the 
southern half of Vestergothland. 

In 1745, Kalm, still a student, was elected a 
Ledamot, or Member, of the Swedish Academy of 
Sciences, and in the following year was appointed 

A 

Docens in Natural History at the Academy at Abo. 
In 1747 he was nominated as the first Professor of 
(Economie at Abo. 

The same year, at the instance of Baron Bjelke and 
Linnaeus, he was commissioned by the Government and 
the Vetenskaps Academi, or Academy of Science, with 
the joint subsidies of the Universities of Abo and Upsala, 
and the Manufactur Kontor of the Swedish States, to 
visit North America, for the purpose of describing the 
natural productions of that part of the world, and of 
introducing from thence into Sweden such useful plants 
as might be expected to thrive in the North of Europe. 
Kalm himself says in his Preface (p. 7) : — 
" In the autumn of 1747, after His Majesty had 
granted me permission to leave my duties, and license 
to travel abroad on the errands of the Royal Swedish 
Academy of Science, and after His Majesty had not only 
given me his own Passport, but also had most graciously 



LIFE OF KALM. IX 

given orders to his Ministers at the French, Spanish, and 
English Courts, as well as those at the United Provinces 
in Holland, to obtain for me the Passports of these 
Powers, I commenced on 16th October [New Style, 
which is everywhere used in this preface] the voyage 
from Upsala down to Gotheborg. 

" I had chosen as my assistant the Horticulturist 
(Tragardsmastaren) Lars Jungstrom, who was quite at 
home in the science of Horticulture and the cultivation 
of plants, adroit in delineating all sorts of things by 
mechanical drawing, indefatigable on journeys, and in 
the highest degree trustworthy. We remained at Gothe- 
borg on account of a continuous adverse wind to the nth 
December, when we sailed from thence, but being driven 
by a fearful storm we were obliged to seek Norway. 
Here we remained till the 8th February, I748 > when we 
sailed from thence to England, and arrived at London 
the 17th of the same month. For want of a vessel to 
cross to America we were obliged to remain in England 
till the 5th August, when we went on board at Gravesend, 
and on the nth of the same month we lost sight of 

England " 

" [On the return Voyage] 1751. 

" After a bad voyage, unusual storms, and being often 
in peril of our lives, on the 23rd March we caught sight 
of England. On the 27th of the same month our ship 



X LIFE OF KALM. 

ran aground at the mouth of the river Thames so hard, 
that with two pumps we could not pump out as much 
water as poured in through the bottom of the ship, but 
were obliged to seek the nearest land, from whence I 
travelled by road to London, where I arrived on the 
29th March, and had the pleasure some days later to see 
our ship and goods arrive there, after it had been 
repaired. On the 5th May we left London, and on the 
16th of the same month reached Gotheborg, and on the 
3rd June arrived at Stockholm. 

" From notes which I made on these Travels, the 
first Volume [1753] is communicated to the public. It 
contains various observations made in Norway and 
England. [The first in pages of the second volume, 
1756, contains the remainder of the English notes]. 

" As far as regards English Rural Economy (Landt 
hushallningen), I have omitted much in order that the 
work might not become too bulky, but think, please God, 
of giving it to the Swedish Academy. When I have been 
speaking of England, I have sometimes come to use some 
English words. I do not see why it should be accounted 
in me a fault more than for others to use French words. 
They are however nearly [p. n] all explained by me in 
one place or another. 

" Many who have more pleasure in reading books for 
diversion than for instruction, will perhaps soon be weary 



LIFE OF KALM. xi 

of seeing Aker, Ang (arable fields and meadows), and 
various matters connected [p. 12] with agriculture, so 
often named in this description of travels (Resebeskrifning) 
which is unusual in most descriptions of travel which 
have hitherto appeared, if I except those of the great 
Linnseus, and those who have followed his method, and 
some few others, but it was just the object of this journey 
and my principal business to collect such. I wish that 
we had, not only of the whole Kingdom and each Pro- 
vince, but also of every Harad, and even Parish (Socken), 
an accurate description of the Rural Economy, as by that 
means we should have a clear light and guide for improving 
our agriculture. [This seems to be the original suggestion 
for an Agricultural Survey such as was carried out in 
England towards the end of the century, forty to fifty 
years later]. By that means we get to select the best of 
everything, and to reject that which we find in our agri- 
culture to be less profitable than another ; we are thereby 
led to devise still better, when the science of Agriculture 
is thoroughly set going. 

" When a number is quoted after the name of a plant 
without any book being named, the Flora Svecica of 
Linnaeus is always meant. 

" When any particular thing has been told me which 
I had no opportunity of seeing for myself, I have 
commonly named my Sagesman (informant), partly to 



Xll LIFE OF KALM. 

express my gratitude to the person who has communi- 
cated anything, and not to give out as my own that 
which belongs to another, partly that it may stand to my 
informant's [p. 14] own account, in case it be found to 
be little in accordance with the truth. In reference to 
that which I have not seen myself, but have been obliged 
to rely upon the accounts of others, I have in addition 
commonly used the word berattades or sages or skal, 
but that which I have either seen myself, or all have 
related with one mouth, I have said that it is so. 

" I have studiously omitted descriptions of plants, 
animals, and rocks, orters, djurs, och stenarters. 
Most readers regard them as wearisome ; besides they make 
the book larger and dearer ; but I have always introduced 
where I have got to know of any, the uses of plants, 
animals, and minerals. The descriptions I will, please 
God, communicate in a Latin work at some future time. 
Abo, the 13th July, 1753." 

Kalm, who had married in America, in 1750, a lady 
from Sweden, died on the 16th November, 1779, without 
completing his account of his travels. Thus says Odhelius 
(Aminnelse Tal, p. 25): "The description of the American 
" travels which he published by degrees during the same 
" period, gave him additional occupation. We have in his 
" lifetime seen three parts of it come out (1753-56-61), and 
" the fourth which he had ready and written with his own 



translator's preface. xiii 

" hand, his successor in office (Kreander) has promised 
" immediately to place in the hands of the public." 

This promise was never fulfilled. Professor Kreander 
obtained possession of the manuscript of the subsequent 
parts under the will, but was prevented by his early 
death from publishing them. Previously to the lament- 
able fire of 1827 they were preserved in the library at 
Abo. 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



Of the now exceedingly rare 
three volumes, not much more 
than one-half relates to America. 
The first 137J- pp. of Tom, I. 
bring up the account to Kami's 
departure from Gromstad for 
England. 

The wonderful account of 
England occupies from p. 138 in 
Tom. I. to p. in in Tom. II. — in 
all 458 pp. 8vo. The American portion was translated into 
English last century by John Reinhold Forster, but the 




XIV TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 

English portion has never before been translated. It is 
totally unknown in this country, but far transcends in 
completeness and accuracy of description any work of its 
age on England known to the present translator. Kalm's 
work in England was carried on from four centres : Graves- 
end, London, Woodford, and Little Gaddesden. Few 
subjects have escaped his scrutiny ; but whether social or 
natural, town or country, each has been described with the 
minute and delicate accuracy of a man of keen observa- 
tion, of refined taste, and of high scientific training. 

The botanical names used by Kalm are mainly those 
of Caspar Bauhin, and of Linnaeus in the Flora Svecica, 
Stockholm, 1745, 8vo. The identification of the plants 
would have been a hopeless task but for the existence in 
the British Museum of two volumes, with MS. notes, from 
the library of Sir Joseph Banks. The first of these is the 
copy of the Prodromos Theatri Botanici of Caspar Bauhin, 
Basilece, 1671, 4to, with press mark "448 p. 3 (2) " ; and 
the second the copy of the Fl. Svecica, with the press 
mark " 450 f. 2." On the margins of these two copies 
are written the Linnaean names of many if not most of 
the plants enumerated in those two works, as given by 
Linnaeus in the 13th Edition of the Systema Naiurce 
(Vindobonae, 1767— 1770, 3 Tom. 8vo), which from its 
publication superseded the works of the older botanists 
and the earlier works of Linnaeus himself. 



TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. XV 

Kalm's agricultural notes are full of vivacious and 
picturesque descriptions and of valuable information and 
suggestions : the scientific portion is of the very highest 
order of excellence, as witness his measured geological 
sections of tertiary strata, his description of the Chalk, 
the Portland stone, or the T otter nhoe stone, &c, and his 
careful enumeration of the genera and species of grasses 
found in grassfields and haystacks. For the rest, his 
acuteness of observation and faithfulness of description 
have been verified by the translator on the ground. 

The head-pieces and tail-piece and the ornamental 
capitals are reproductions of the originals. The legend 
on one of the head-pieces should read ' Ljusare anda,' 
' Lighter yet.' 

In this translation the circumflex has been used 
instead of the Swedish ° over the letter " a," as was done 
by Linnaeus in his Flora Lapponica, 1737, 8vo. 

The figures, with the exception of that of the archaeo- 
logical mystery on p. 402, and the plan showing its site, 
are reproductions of Jungstrom's figures, some of which 
have, however, been omitted. Mr. F. W. Lucas, the 
author of the magnificent work on America, "Appendiculce 
Historicce; or, Shreds of History hung on a horn," 1891, 
4to,has contributed a learned note on the identity of the 
Frisland of the Zeni with Faero, a proof that may be 
strengthened by the names of several other places in 



XVI TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 

Faero. He also contributed the note on p. 19, and that on 
p. 20, on Angria, the Sea Rover, concerning whom, Robert 
Bloomfield writes in the little poem on Shooter's Hill : — 

" This far-seen monumental tower 

Records the achievements of the brave, 
And Angria's subjugated power 

Who plundered on the Eastern wave." 

He has also contributed facsimiles of the portions of 
Rocques' survey, showing Wanstead Manor, and Chelsea 
as they existed at the date of Kalm's visit. 

The sections on pp. 406-7 have been published by 
Mr. Whitaker, F.R.S., in the Memoirs of the Geological 
Survey of England (Geol. of London, 1889, pp. 174-5) as 
condensed by him from the M.S. of this translation. 

J.L. 

Tooting Graveney, 

December 4th, 1891. 





KALM'S ENGLAND. 



THE VOYAGE FROM GROMSTAD 
TO ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 138.] 

N the 28th January, 1748, at 
10 o'clock in the morning we 
committed ourselves in the 
Lord's name to the seas 
between Gromstad in Nor- 
way and England. On the 
passage nothing especially 
remarkable occurred, beyond 
that on January 30th, at 
4 o'clock in the afternoon, a very large fish appeared, 
which for more than an hour swam before the ship on 




2 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

the surface of the water. When its back-fins stood 
above the water they looked in the distance like a sail. 
The weather was beautiful and the wind moderate, and 
after a fair passage, on the 4th of February, we caught 
sight of the English coast and Foreland lighthouse, and 
at night we cast anchor off Margate. 

Thermometrical Observations were made this day both 
in the air and in the sea water. In the air, or in the 
shade on the south side of the ship the Thermometer of 
Celsius at 10 o'clock in the morning stood 4I above o° 
[40*1° Fahr.] I had several whole buckets full of water 
drawn up from the sea, and set the Thermometer in them 
directly, when the Mercury shot up like an arrow to 8° Cels. 
[46*4° Fahr.] where it always remained stationary and 
went neither higher nor lower : but when I took it out of 
the water and held it in the open air, it again fell in two 
or three minutes to 4 or 3 above o° Cels. [39*2° or 
37*4° Fahr.] 

[T. I. p. 139.] At sunrise on the morning of the 5th 
February, we took a pilot on board, when we at once 
began to sail up to the River Thames, near and in whose 
mouth there lies an endless number of banks. 

On the left hand, the English coast was now con- 
tinuously in sight, and consisted of white chalk, which at 
the water's-edge was nearly perpendicular. At a distance, 
as seen from the sea, this country was like enough to the 
coasts of Estland [Esthonia] although the kind of rock 
here was altogether different. 

The water was whitish, which was due to the chalky 
bottom ; for when we drew up the anchor, all that adhered 
to the anchor-fluke was bare white chalk, mostly dis- 
integrated and soft like a thick mud. Although small 
pieces of hard chalk, Krita, occurred amongst it, we 
did not see any flints or Testacea therein. 

On the land appeared one church after another, with 



THE VOYAGE FROM GROMSTAD TO ENGLAND. 3 

towers all of stone, as well as beautiful houses, gardar, 
windmills, etc. 

Bankarna vid Segelleden. The banks near the 
navigable channels are marked by black or white buoys, 
which float on the surface of the water. 

In this river there is the Ebb and Flood, which goes 
right up beyond London. Seafarers avail themselves of 
it in this way, that when it is flowing upwards, the ships 
and boats which are bound for London go with it, but 
directly the Ebb begins to go, these all cast their an- 
chors and lie still; then, on the other hand, those coming 
from London lift anchor, and drive outwards with the 
Ebb as long as it continues to run, and when it stops 
they drop their anchors. In this way vessels come both 
to and from London without particularly [T. I. p. 140] 
caring about the wind that is blowing, so long as it is not 
too strong. It is impossible to express the untold multi- 
tude of ships and vessels which sail up and down this 
river daily, especially in the summer time, when ships in 
some of the narrower places can hardly avoid running 
into each other, and often at the same time cause each 
other great damage. 

Themse Ploden. The River Thames.— On the 6th 
February in the morning we continued our voyage. At 
mid- day we sailed past the town of Gravesend on the 
left hand, which is commanded by a little fort in its 
midst.* The width of the river for about a mile above 
Gravesend was about three to four musket shots. 

Batars Styren. The steering apparatus of boats. In 

* The Blockhouse erected 1539 by Henry VIII. " Upon which certain 
"piece of land called ' Le Grene' a certain house and tower called a Block- 
" house by our Lord the King, is just now built and constructed." [Deed of 
Conveyance of "Le Grene," 3rd June, 1543)- "This Blockhouse remains 
"at the waterside in front or north of the terrace at the west side of Terrace 
"garden and pier." (Cruden Hist, of Gravesend 1843, 8vo. p. 163). [J. L ] 

B 2 



4 KALM S ENGLAND. 

some boats they had so arranged the steering apparatus 
that one could sit forward in the boat and steer it. On 
the top of the rudder was set crossways, a ' tiller ' or board 
of some two feet long, which was parallel with the stern- 
panel of the boat, when the rudder was directed end 
backwards or in linea recta with the boat's keel. On to 
both ends of the tiller was fastened a small cord or 
* tiller-line/ tag, wherewith they turn the rudder where 
they will. Thus one could tie the tiller-ropes to his arms 
and steer, but equally do what he liked with his hands. 

Landets beskaffenhet omkring Themsen. The 
landscape around the Thames where we were sailing was 
pleasant, and one of the prettiest I had ever hitherto seen. 
The Thames was for the most part three to four musket- 
shots wide. On both sides the strands, Stranderna, were 
sometimes rather high and steep, especially farther down 
towards Gravesend, sometimes quite low, remarkably so 
farther up towards London. Next to the river there 
lay for the most part meadows, angar. Farther up 
[T. I. p. 141] from the Strand, the country was sloping 
from the hills down towards the river, and on these 
slopes appeared ploughed fields, akrar, which were con- 
sequently very favourably situated. 

No dikes, diken, could we see ; but in place of 
gardesgardar (fences) there were mostly hackar, 
hedges of different kinds of bushes. 

Beautiful buildings, mostly of brick, sten, made a 
show everywhere, yet we saw some small houses of cross- 
beams covered with boards. A number of churches 
adorned the country in many places along by the river, 
all of stone, and with more or less high towers. 

A great number of church towers were built in the 
same way as the city gates of Moscow, viz. : the walls 
were cut off horizontally a little above the church, so as 
to leave the section square at the top. 



THE VOYAGE FROM GROMSTAD TO ENGLAND. 5 

In other respects, the country sometimes appeared 
hilly but without any rocks except the chalk, Krit- 
bargen. On the hills, and also in many other places, 
there appeared leafwoods* and beautiful plantations, 
lofskog och skona lundar, whose trees were in some 
places tall enough. 

Krittbrott. A chalk pit was also remarked here 
and there on the banks of the river, as at Cliffe and 
Purfleet. 

Par och hastar. Sheep and horses appeared every- 
where on the ploughed fields and pastures, betesmarker, 
though the weather was still chilly enough. The ground 
was everywhere bare, so that not the smallest sign of 
snow was seen, but the fields began in some places to 
look tolerably green. 
Arundo, 99, vulg. [A. Phragmites, L., now P. communis.] 

The Reed grew in abundance near the banks of the 
river. We also saw it cut, bound in sheaves, and laid in 
great heaps on the river banks. Wooden houses were in 
many places thatched with it. 

There were walls, vallar, on the edge of the river's 
bank, between the river and the adjacent meadows and 
ploughed fields, about 4 feet high, which consisted of 
earth, mull, with planks outside towards the river to 
prevent [T. I. p. 142] the river from overflowing the 
ploughed fields and meadows when a very high tide 
occurred. In some places these walls were of earth 
only, af bara jord. 

In the sequel they shall be fully described. 

* A natural observation for one coming from a land of pines. [J. L.] 



2 KALM S ENGLAND. 

the surface of the water. When its back-fins stood 
above the water they looked in the distance like a sail. 
The weather was beautiful and the wind moderate, and 
after a fair passage, on the 4th of February, we caught 
sight of the English coast and Foreland lighthouse, and 
at night we cast anchor off Margate. 

Thermometrical Observations were made this day both 
in the air and in the sea water. In the air, or in the 
shade on the south side of the ship the Thermometer of 
Celsius at 10 o'clock in the morning stood 4J above o° 
[40*1° Fahr.] I had several whole buckets full of water 
drawn up from the sea, and set the Thermometer in them 
directly, when the Mercury shot up like an arrow to 8° Cels. 
[46*4° Fahr.] where it always remained stationary and 
went neither higher nor lower : but when I took it out of 
the water and held it in the open air, it again fell in two 
or three minutes to 4 or 3 above o° Cels. [39*2° or 
37*4° Fahr.] 

[T. I. p. 139.] At sunrise on the morning of the 5th 
February, we took a pilot on board, when we at once 
began to sail up to the River Thames, near and in whose 
mouth there lies an endless number of banks. 

On the left hand, the English coast was now con- 
tinuously in sight, and consisted of white chalk, which at 
the water's-edge was nearly perpendicular. At a distance, 
as seen from the sea, this country was like enough to the 
coasts of Estland [Esthonia] although the kind of rock 
here was altogether different. 

The water was whitish, which was due to the chalky 
bottom ; for when we drew up the anchor, all that adhered 
to the anchor-fluke was bare white chalk, mostly dis- 
integrated and soft like a thick mud. Although small 
pieces of hard chalk, Krita, occurred amongst it, we 
did not see any flints or Testacea therein. 

On the land appeared one church after another, with 



THE VOYAGE FROM GROMSTAD TO ENGLAND. 3 

towers all of stone, as well as beautiful houses, gardar, 
windmills, etc. 

Bankarna vid Segelleden. The banks near the 
navigable channels are marked by black or white buoys, 
which float on the surface of the water. 

In this river there is the Ebb and Flood, which goes 
right up beyond London. Seafarers avail themselves of 
it in this way, that when it is flowing upwards, the ships 
and boats which are bound for London go with it, but 
directly the Ebb begins to go, these all cast their an- 
chors and lie still; then, on the other hand, those coming 
from London lift anchor, and drive outwards with the 
Ebb as long as it continues to run, and when it stops 
they drop their anchors. In this way vessels come both 
to and from London without particularly [T. I. p. 140] 
caring about the wind that is blowing, so long as it is not 
too strong. It is impossible to express the untold multi- 
tude of ships and vessels which sail up and down this 
river daily, especially in the summer time, when ships in 
some of the narrower places can hardly avoid running 
into each other, and often at the same time cause each 
other great damage. 

Themse Ploden. The River Thames.— On the 6th 
February in the morning we continued our voyage. At 
mid- day we sailed past the town of Gravesend on the 
left hand, which is commanded by a little fort in its 
midst.* The width of the river for about a mile above 
Gravesend was about three to four musket shots. 

Batars Styren. The steering apparatus of boats. In 

* The Blockhouse erected 1539 by Henry VIII. " Upon which certain 
"piece of land called ' Le Grene' a certain house and tower called a Block- 
" house by our Lord the King, is just now built and constructed." [Deed of 
Conveyance of "Le Grene," 3rd June, 1543). "This Blockhouse remains 
"at the waterside in front or north of the terrace at the west side of Terrace 
"garden and pier." (Cruden Hist, of Gravesend 1843, 8vo. p. 163). [J. L ] 

B 2 



4 KALM S ENGLAND. 

some boats they had so arranged the steering apparatus 
that one could sit forward in the boat and steer it. On 
the top of the rudder was set crossways, a ' tiller ' or board 
of some two feet long, which was parallel with the stern- 
panel of the boat, when the rudder was directed end 
backwards or in lima recta with the boat's keel. On to 
both ends of the tiller was fastened a small cord or 
' tiller-line/ tag, wherewith they turn the rudder where 
they will. Thus one could tie the tiller-ropes to his arms 
and steer, but equally do what he liked with his hands. 

Landets beskaffenhet omkring Themsen. The 
landscape around the Thames where we were sailing was 
pleasant, and one of the prettiest I had ever hitherto seen. 
The Thames was for the most part three to four musket - 
shots wide. On both sides the strands, Stranderna, were 
sometimes rather high and steep, especially farther down 
towards Gravesend, sometimes quite low, remarkably so 
farther up towards London. Next to the river there 
lay for the most part meadows, angar. Farther up 
[T. I. p. 141] from the Strand, the country was sloping 
from the hills down towards the river, and on these 
slopes appeared ploughed fields, akrar, which were con- 
sequently very favourably situated. 

No dikes, diken, could we see ; but in place of 
gardesgardar (fences) there were mostly hackar, 
hedges of different kinds of bushes. 

Beautiful buildings, mostly of brick, sten, made a 
show everywhere, yet we saw some small houses of cross- 
beams covered with boards. A number of churches 
adorned the country in many places along by the river, 
all of stone, and with more or less high towers. 

A great number of church towers were built in the 
same way as the city gates of Moscow, viz. : the walls 
were cut off horizontally a little above the church, so as 
to leave the section square at the top. 



THE VOYAGE FROM GROMSTAD TO ENGLAND. 5 

In other respects, the country sometimes appeared 
hilly but without any rocks except the chalk, Krit- 
bargen. On the hills, and also in many other places, 
there appeared leafwoods* and beautiful plantations, 
lofskog och skona lundar, whose trees were in some 
places tall enough. 

Krittbrott. A chalk pit was also remarked here 
and there on the banks of the river, as at Cliffe and 
Purfleet. 

Par och hastar. Sheep and horses appeared every- 
where on the ploughed fields and pastures, betesmarker, 
though the weather was still chilly enough. The ground 
was everywhere bare, so that not the smallest sign of 
snow was seen, but the fields began in some places to 
look tolerably green. 
Arundo, 99, vulg. [A. Phragmites, L., now P. communis.] 

The Reed grew in abundance near the banks of the 
river. We also saw it cut, bound in sheaves, and laid in 
great heaps on the river banks. Wooden houses were in 
many places thatched with it. 

There were walls, vallar, on the edge of the river's 
bank, between the river and the adjacent meadows and 
ploughed fields, about 4 feet high, which consisted of 
earth, mull, with planks outside towards the river to 
prevent [T. I. p. 142] the river from overflowing the 
ploughed fields and meadows when a very high tide 
occurred. In some places these walls were of earth 
only, af bara jord. 

In the sequel they shall be fully described. 

* A natural observation for one coming from a land of pines. [J. L.] 




LONDON AND SUBURBS, 

INCLUDING 

HAMPSTEAD, CHELSEA, FULHAM, WIMBLEDON COMMON, 
PECKHAM, DULWICH, GREENWICH, &c. 



In the evening at sunset we arrived at London. 

Immediately upon my arrival I addressed myself, 
according to the instructions given me by the Royal 
Academy of Science of Sweden, to Mr. Abraham Spalding, 
a Swedish merchant in London, who afterwards, during 
the whole of my visit to England gave me every imagin- 
able information, help, advice, and explanation of various 
things ; recommended me, partly himself, partly through 
his friends, to all the places I had occasion to visit, or 
where there was anything remarkable to see ; lent me 
all the money I required for the whole of my foreign 
travels, and besides that, showed me manifold kindness. 

The gth February, 1748. 

Note respecting Concha (1333) Subviol. [Mytilus Edulis, 

Mussel] omitted. 

The nth February. 

Arter. To make peas still more wholesome and 
agreeable, a mill, en qvarn, is used to grind them in, 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 7 

so that they are split in two, and the thin pellicle or 
scale which surrounds them is detached. [T. I. p. 143.] 
It is well known that all peas split naturally into two 
parts as soon as the outer cuticle is removed from them. 
Afterwards the loose skin is farther winnowed away with 
a winnower or fan, Vanna eller dryfta. 

[Paragraph on pickling Cucumbers, Gurkor omitted.] 

The 15th February, 1748. 

Thermometrical observations were made yester- 
day. [T. I. p. 144.] The room which the people lived 
in had a fire in it the whole day from morning till night, 
although most of the heat went away through the chim- 
ney, because in London they neither use a spjall, nor 
know what a spjall is, for which reason also there is no 
name for it in the whole of the English language. * The 
thermometer was first set by the side of the window, 
when it always stood at io° Cels. [50 Fahr.] During 
my visit to Norway I also made similar observations in 
the large hall, sal, which we lived in, which was only 
warmed by a little iron stove, jarn-Ugn, and that seldom 
over twice a day. When it was warm enough in the hall, 
the thermometer stood at ig° or 20 Cels. [66*2° to 68° 
Fahr.] but when it fell to 15 , 14 , or 13 Cels. [59 , 57*2°, 
55*4° Fahr.] we thought it was tolerably cold and chilly. 
The observations were carried on both when it was very 
cold, and only moderately cold, out in the open air. To- 
day the thermometer hung from morning till evening in 
the same room in the middle of the wall between the 
window and the fireplace, when it ranged through the 
day between 8° and 5 Cels. [46*4° and 41 Fahr.] In 
the fireplace however nothing but coal was burned. The 

* Fr. "Bouchoir, clapet, de cheminee, de poele." Weste, Lex. 1807. 
Damper \ valve. [J. L.] 



o KALM S ENGLAND. 

following day it ranged between J° and 4 Cels. [44*6° 
and 39*2° Fahr.] It remained thus all the other days 
and never went above io° Cels. [50 Fahr.]. In Sweden 
the fire is commonly lighted as soon as the thermometer 
falls as low as io° Cels. There, 15 Cels. [59° Fahr.] is 
considered very moderately warm, but 20 Cels. [68° 
Fahr.] is too hot for most people, that is when the ther- 
mometer hangs on the window frame. 

[T. I. p. 145.] The igth February, 1748. 

Koks-Kryddgardar.— Market- gardens appeared in 
several places, together with very large fields which the 
market-gardeners rented, and had sown with everything 
that is required in the kitchen. The length and breadth 
of the beds was such as is usual in kitchen gardens, some 
with thin planks round them. They sloped, although a 
very little, towards the mid-day sun. Most of them were 
at this time covered over with glass frames, which could 
be taken off at will. Under these they had sown cauliflower 
seed, Blom-kals-frd, which was already come up four 
inches high. The cauliflowers, Kalen, stood in even rows 
across the beds, sangen, about eighteen inches between 
each row, and each plant. As cold and snow had come, 
they had placed the frames over the beds, afterwards 
Russian matting over these, and straw over that, four inches 
thick. They had stood thus till to-day at noon, or a 
little before, when the straw and mats were cast off, and 
the frames raised quite up, so that the sun and air could 
play freely over them. On some of these beds there were 
no mats over the frames, but bare straw \a.y on the glass. 
Otherwise the beds were arranged inside in the way 
which is usual with forcing beds, drif-bankar, viz. : 
horse-dung down at the bottom and fine good mould on 
the top. Of the rest of the field, a great part was filled 
with large bell-glasses, glas-klackor, under which also 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 9 

cauliflower plants were set, three or four under each bell- 
glass. Besides the afore-named beds, there were here 
long asparagus beds. Their height above the ground 
was two feet. They had at the sides, either boards, or only 
straw. On the top they were similarly covered with 
glass, matting, and straw, which had just been all taken 
off at mid-day. The Asparagus under them was one inch 
[T. I. p. 146] high, and considerably thick. On the field 
stood a number of bell-glasses with Asparagus under. 
All these bell-glasses had not any straw, matting, or any- 
thing else over them on account of the cold and snow, 
but stood quite bare. They were all of one piece. 

Radisorne. The Radishes were also sown in beds, 
which nearly lay horizontal with the ground. In the 
snowy weather they had been covered over only with a 
mat, which was taken off at mid-day. They had now 
begun to come up. For shelter against the north wind, 
there were set up by some beds on the field, small fences, 
hagnader, of reeds arranged perpendicularly, and of 
about 2 inches thickness. 

[Kalm was at Woodford from 28 Feb. to 16 Mar.] 

[T. I. p. 166.] The 16th March, 1748. 

In the morning I went in to London from Woodford, 
to get certain information as to how soon any ship would 
go from thence to America. 

Husens byggnad. The construction of houses. At 
all the places I passed through in Essex, brick houses 
were used, brukades Stenhus. They were all built of 
brick, tegel, but in some of the farm houses the brick- 
work was built between crossbeams of wood, var teglet 
muradt emellan Kors-verk af tra, which were erected 
both ad angulos rectos et acutos. Some out-houses only, such 
as Lador och Logar, ' lathes ' and ' lodges,' to thrash corn 
in, horse-stables, hast-stall, etc., were so far of wood, that 



10 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

the walls were built of boards, nailed horizontally over 
one another. The ordinary houses in which the folk 
lived, consisted often of two or three stories, vaningar, 
seldom of one only. I speak now of Farm-houses or 
Bonde-gardar. The roofs of the houses were all of 
tiles, tak-tegel,* both of the square and flat sorts, and of 
that which resembles gutters, rannor, such as are 
used with us in Sweden. The former, or the square 
sort, was most used. This seemed to have the advan- 
tage of the [T. I. p. 167] concava, or gutter-like tiles, 
because if one or more tiles of this sort cracked, the 
water could still not run down through it, as almost 
always happens with the concave. In some places, in 
laying the roof with such square and flat tiles, they had 
smeared clay under the tiles by which means it was made 
impossible that either rain or snow could be, by wind or 
blast, driven into the loft. The chimneys were commonly 
built in one of the gable-walls, often so far out, that the 
gable-wall formed one side of the chimney, and the three 
others were altogether outside the building. This had 
the advantage, that if the soot were to take fire in the 
chimney, and the chimney cracked, there was still seldom 
any fear of fire in the building. 

The lyth March, 1748. 

Huru Hastar Spannas fore, Koras, etc. 

How horses are put to, driven, &c. The vehicles, akdon, 
which are used here in England, are wagons and carts, 
Vagnar OCh Karror. As has been said before, they 
do not know of the Sled, Slada, because the snow, which 
seldom lies on the ground over a couple of days, does not 

* "Thacktiles. Roof tiles; opposed to wall tiles, or bricks. North" 
Grose. Prov. Gloss. Suppt. 2nd Ed. Lond. 1790. 8°- but wrongly explained 
in Bailey Eng. Die. Ed. 1753. 8°- fJ.L.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. II 

give them the opportunity of using it. For ordinary 
Coaches, Kusk-vagnar, a pair of horses are harnessed 
abreast, spannes i bredd, as with us in Sweden ; or, 
when they are heavier, two, three, or more pairs, one 
after another ; but for other wagons on which all sorts of 
things are carried, and for carts, where they are large, 
the horses are harnessed or spanned in quite a peculiar 
manner, viz., not in pairs or abreast, as for the 
coaches, but all in a single row the one after the other. 
I have once seen as many as eight such horses spanned 
all in a row after one another, nevertheless, it is rare to 
see so many. Commonly five or six horses are used for 
one of the large baggage wagons, tross-vagnar [T. i. p. 
1 68], so harnessed tandem, i rad. They are bound to and 
after one another with strong iron chains, jam-kadjor, 
one of which goes on each side of the horse, and where it 
comes sometimes to rub against the horse's side it is covered 
with leather, so that it may not gnaw the horse, gnaga 
hasten. The weight and thickness of these chains is 
such that any other than English horses would with 
difficulty be able to support it, for the horses which are 
used here in England for these wagons, are as large as 
the largest cavalier-horses, Byttare-hastar, in Sweden, 
fat, and of an uncommon strength. By the collar's, 
lokarna, the horses drew the load or the wagon, lasset 
eller vagnen, which is fastened on to these iron-chains ; 
and the chains are supported by straps, rem mar, four 
inches broad, which lie across the horse's back. There 
are seldom any reins, tommor, used in the whole length 
of this long row of horses, but they were accustomed 
to be steered wherever he wished, or to stop or go faster, 
only by the various and particular calls of the driver, 
Kuskens. Also one never sees more than a single carl 
accompany and drive a wagon and six horses spanned all 
in a row. 



12 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

All English horses, at least as many as I saw, have 
had the tail, svantsen, cut off about six inches from the 
root, so that the whole stump of the tail was only four or 
six inches long. On my asking the reason of this, some 
Englishmen have answered that it is the custom of the 
country to have the horses so bob-tailed, stump- 
svantsiga. 

But must it not be considered a reason that the tail 
has been docked, because, when they are harnessed all in 
a row, and close behind each other the horse going before 
may not strike the next in the eyes with his dirty and 
muddy tail ? The wagons which are used here are fright- 
fully large, with very high wheels, and are loaded with an 
[T. I. p. 169] astonishing weight. Hence it happens 
that no roads in this country can stand against them, 
sta bi, but the large and heavy wagon and cart-wheels 
cut deep ruts in the road, in the same way as happens 
on the roads with our rocks, Bergslagor, in Sweden. 
[Defoe's advice was not carried out till some years after 
this date] . 

The i&th March, 1748. 

Pafoglars nytta— The use of Pea-fowls. Some 
English gentlemen kept at their own houses a great many 
Peafowls, Peahens, but particularly Peacocks, which 
they did, partly because these fowls are very beautiful 
and showy, partly and principally because their young are 
one of the best flavoured steaks, stekar, which can be 
desired. They are fed in the winter time with corn in 
the same way as hens. 

Rena galf, etc. — Clean floors, etc. — English women 
generally have the character of keeping floors, steps, and 
such things very clean. They are not particularly pleased 
if anyone comes in with dirty shoes, and soils their clean 
floors, but he ought first to rub his shoes and feet very 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 1 3 

clean, if he would be at peace with them in other things. 
Hence it is that outside every door there stands a fixed 
iron, on which the men scrape the mould, and other dirt 
off their shoes before they step in. The women leave in 
the passage their pattins, that is, a kind of wooden shoes 
which stand on a high iron ring. Into these wooden 
shoes they thrust their ordinary leather, or stuff, shoes 
(when they go out) and so go by that means quite free from 
all dirt into the room. In the hall or passage, and after- 
wards at every door, though there were ever so many one 
within the other, there lies a mat, matta, tacke, or some- 
thing else, to still more carefully rub the soil off the shoes, 
so that it is never, in short, sufficiently rubbed off. 

[T. I. p. 170.] The igth March, 1748. 

Prukost, Breakfast, which here in England was 
almost everywhere partaken of by those more comfortably 
off, consisted in drinking Tea, but not as we do in 
Sweden, when we take a quantity of hot water on an 
empty stomach, without anything else to it, but the 
English fashion was somewhat more natural, for they ate 
at the same time one or more slices of wheat-bread, 
which they had first toasted at the fire, half-stekt vid 
Elden, and when it was very hot, had spread butter on 
it, and then placed it a little way from the fire on the 
hearth, so that the butter might melt well into the bread. 
In the summer they do not toast the bread, but only 
spread the butter on it before they eat it. The cold 
rooms here in England in the winter, and because the 
butter is then hard from the cold, and does not so easily 
admit of being spread on the bread, have perhaps given 
them the idea to thus toast the bread, and then spread 
the butter on it while it is still hot. Most people pour a 
little cream or sweet milk into the teacup, brukas, at 
sla litet gradda eller sot mjolk i Thee-kuppen, 



14 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

when they are about to drink the tea. The servants in 
London also commonly get such a breakfast, but in the 
country they have to content themselves with whatever 
else they can get. 

MiddagS-maltiden. Dinner did not here consist of 
one particular kind of food, any more than it does among 
other peoples : but still the English nation differed some- 
what particularly from others in this ; that butchers' 
meat formed with them the greater part of the meal, and 
the principal dishes. The meat is prepared in various 
ways ; yet generally speaking it is either boiled or roasted. 
When I say that it was boiled, let no one imagine that it 
was made into soup, lagt i sappa, for what we in 
Sweden call supan-mat seems hardly ever to be in use 
among Englishmen. [T. I. p. 171.] Thus, all kinds of 
soups, soppor, call them what you will, as well as grot, 
vailing, and nearly all kinds of mj dlk-mat, &c, in the 
houses of most Englishmen, are entirely unknown. Thus, 
it is that in England at dinner-time they hardly ever use 
spoons, sked, for anything but pouring the sauce on the 
" steak," an at dsa "saucen " pa stek ; to take turnips, 
potatoes, carrots, &c, from the dish, fatet, and lay them 
in abundance on their plates. It is indeed true that one 
sometimes gets a kind of kottsoppa, or broth, as it is 
called, but it is more nearly a kott-spad than a kott- 
soppa. Boiled meat, kokadt kott, is here used in the 
same way as we use a kokadt skinka (boiled ham) 
bringstycke (brisket), etc Oxkott is called beef; kalf- 
kott, veal ; far-k6tt, mutton ; flask, pork. No Ragouts, 
Fricasees, Plackflnk (Ortolans), &c, does one ever 
see in their houses, but the meat is cooked in large 
pieces. Roast meat, Stek, is the Englishman's delice 
and principal dish. It is not however always roasted, 
Stekt, to the same hardness as with us in Sweden. The 
English roasts, stekame, are particularly remarkable 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 1 5 

for two things, i. All English meat, whether it is of Ox, 
Calf, Sheep, or Swine, has a fatness and a delicious taste, 
either because of the excellent pasture, betet, which 
consist of such nourishing and sweet-scented kinds 
of hay as there are in this country, where the culti- 
vation of meadows has been brought to such high 
perfection, or some way of fattening the cattle known 
to the butchers alone, or, for some other reason. 
2. The Englishmen understand almost better than 
any other people the art of properly roasting a joint, 
konsten, at val steka en stek, which also is not 
to be wondered at ; because the art of cooking as practised 
by most Englishmen does not extend much beyond roast 
beef and plum pudding, stek och P. Pudding in the 
same way is much eaten by Englishmen, yet not so often 
as butchers' meat, for there are many meals without 
pudding. I do not believe that any [T. I., p. 172] 
Englishman, who is his own master, has ever eaten a 
dinner without meat. Puddings are prepared here in 
manifold ways, with or without raisins, Russili; currants, 
Corinther, and such like things in it, but they all deserve 
the credit of being well prepared. Potatoes are now very 
much used together with the roast meat, stek. They are 
cooked as we cook turnips, and either put on the same 
dish as the meat or on a special one. A cup of melted 
butter stands beside it, to pour on to them. When they 
have boiled meat, whole carrots are laid round the sides of 
the dish. Cucumbers, gurkor, are much used with their 
roast meat as before described ; also several kinds of 
green vegetables, as lettuce, lactuc, salad, sallat, 
sprouts, gr6n-kal, and other cabbage, kal, prepared 
mostly like lettuce or spinach, spinat, &c. Turnips are 
here used in exactly the same way as potatoes. There 
is also eaten much green peas when they can be had ; 
but otherwise than green, beans and peas are very 



1 6 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

seldom eaten. Cider, appel-mos, is also much drunk 
with roast meat. Their pies, which are mostly a kind of 
tartor, tarts and pastry, are also sometimes seen. Cheese, 
OSt, nearly always concludes the meal, maltiden. 
Commonly, there is set on the table, whole, a large and 
strong cheese, and each person cuts what he likes from it. 
Mjdlk-mat is hardly ever seen at their meals, either 
dinner or supper, except what is taken in puddings > and 
in tea in the morning. Butter, smor, is seldom placed 
on the table. Their drinks are various. Those who can 
afford it mostly drink wine, others ale, 61, cyder, " swag," 
or small beer, svagdricka, but the favourite drink 
— lifdryk — of all the Englishmen is Punch. After meal 
times one generally sits for an hour at the table, or at 
least as long as till certain toasts, skalar, have been 
drunk by all, such as the King's health, the Prince 
[T. I., p. 173.] of Wales, the Royal Family, absent 
friends, &c. 

Afton-maltid, supper, is taken by some Englishmen, 
but by others, never. It is, however, with those who 
eat it, a very sparing meal. It seldom consists of more 
than one dish, which is commonly butchers' meat, 
for the most part roasted, and a little cheese after it. It 
often consists only of cold meat, and that which is over 
from dinner, middagen. As Englishmen eat a late 
breakfast and a late dinner, sent Frukost och sent 
Middag, they do not require such a heavy supper. 

[Kalm was at Woodford and Little Gaddesden from 
Mar. 20, to Ap. 21, 1748.] 

[T. I. p. 366.] The 21st April, 1748. 

In the morning I went from Woodford into London. 
Mr. Abraham Spalding then introduced me to Mr. 
Ellicot, F.R.S., who was now reckoned one of the best 



LONDON AND SUBURBS 1 7 

clock-makers in London, both for watches for the fob, 
Byx-sack-Ur, and other clocks. In one of his rooms he 
showed me several of the clocks he had made, the 
ingenuity of some being exceeded by that of others. 
Towards evening, I accompanied him to the great patron 
of Natural History and lover of learned men, Mr. Peter 
Collinson, F.R.S., who afterwards took me with him to 
the Royal Society, which meets every Thursday at five 
o'clock in the afternoon. A little time after I had entered, 
the Secretary read out a notice, sedel eller Bill, con- 
taining the announcement that " a Swedish gentleman of 
" the name of Kalm had been introduced to see the Royal 
" Society by Mr. Collinson, Fellow of the same Society." 
Here were read out " Observations on the variation of 
" the Magnetic Needle " [by Mr. George Graham, F.R.S.] 
" observations on a Coccionella, which had damaged trees 
" in Ireland" [by the Revd. Philip Skelton.] A communi- 
cation from Mr. Bradley that he had seen a comet, etc. 
[This last is not recorded in the Phil. Trans, for 
1748. J. L.] 

A little after 7 o'clock the meeting was concluded, when 
the Fellows went home by degrees. Mr. Collinson at 
once introduced me to Dr. Mortimer, secretary of the 
Royal Society, and to Mr. Catesby, author of the precious 
and costly work on the Flora and Fauna of Carolina in 
America. [In the Brit. Mus. the only edition is Catesby 
(M.) Nat. Hist, of Carolina, 2 vols., folio, London, 1771.] 
[T. I. p. 367.] The 22nd April, 1748. 

A great part of this day was devoted to seeing rarities 
in London. Mr. Warner gave me his company the whole 
day to show me the same. Among several other note- 
worthy objects, I reckon in particular the following: 
King Charles the 1st on horse-back, all in bronze. The 
place where King Charles I. had his head cut off. King 
James II. in bronze. Westminster Abbey Church, where 



1 8 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

the kings of England are crowned and buried. We 
saw here the royal tombs, among which Queen Eliza- 
beth's and the beheaded Scottish Queen Mary's, King 
Henry VIII. 's and King William III.'s tombs were well 
worth seeing. An old chair, stol,* was shown in this 
church, which was very badly made, on which all the 
later English kings, for a period of several centuries, 
have sat when they were crowned. Many a poor old 
woman with only one room has a better and more hand- 
somely made chair, stol, than this ; but for the sake of 
its great age, because it had been brought from Scotland 
as long ago as the 13th century by King Edward I., and 
on account of the prophecy about the stone, sten, which 
lies in this chair, stol : 

Ni fallat fatiim, Scoti quocunquc locatum, 
Invenient lapidem Regnare tenentur ibidem. 
it is held in so high esteem. There is seldom anyone, 
who now sees it, who has not the curiosity to sit upon 
it. At the coronations this chair is overdrawn with costly 
cloths. Another chair stands beside it, which was made 
when King William III. and his Queen Mary were both 
crowned at one time. Besides this we saw Sir Isaac 
Newton's tomb, graf, and the monument erected near it 
to his memory. One thing struck me particularly — 
[T. I. p. 368] — that they not only erected here monuments 
and epitaphs to such well-deserving men as had been buried 
in this church, but also in honour of such as had their 
resting place elsewhere ; even for such as had not been 
of the English nation, and perhaps had never been in 
England, but either through heroic actions, or their 
learned writings, had won the love and esteem of the 
English nation. 

We afterwards saw both Houses of Parliament, the 
upper and the under. The place where they impeached, 

*" Solium regale'" Ov. Fasti. VI. 353. and in four other places. [J. L.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 1 9 

anklagade, the Scottish lords [Lovat, Kilmarnock and 
Balmerino] for the late rebellion was examined ; St. 
James's Park, the Royal Palace, &c, Chelsea Hortum 
Botanicum, which is one of the principal ones in Europe. 
Here we found the learned Mr. Miller, who is Horti Prcz- 
fectus of the same. 

In the evening I was at the house of Dr. Mortimer, 
secretary of the Royal Society. Here I met the great 
Ornithologies Mr. Edward, who had published a book on 
birds in the English language, with matchless copper 
plates, all in life-like colours, so that it looked as if the 
bird stood living on the paper. He had now with him 
several drawings of a number of rare birds from several 
districts, which he had hit off incomparably well, and 
intended to publish. * 

To write with a lead pencil, so that it may not 
be rubbed out. 

Mr. Warner told me that if one writes with a lead 
pencil on clean paper, and, as soon as he has written, 
dips the paper softly and carefully in clean water, and 
afterwards leaves it to dry thoroughly, all that has been 
written with the lead pencil will be very difficult [T. I. p. 
369] to rub out, but sticks to the paper nearly as fast as 
if it had been written with ink. 

[Paragraph about Liktornar, omitted.] 

The 2\th April, 1748. 

Sj6-Rofvaren Angria. The device of the Sea-rover 

Angria to make ships sail fast. 

Captain Shierman, who had lived in the East Indies 
for a period of fourteen years, had in the same period had 
the ill luck to be once taken by the notorious sea-rover 

* George Edwards (c. 1693 — 1773), F.R.S. 1757, began to publish bis 
"Natural History of Birds " in 1743. He presented to the Brit. M us. the 
Dutch picture containing a drawing from life of the Dodo, from which most 
modern representations are taken. [F. W. L.] 

C 2 



20 KALM S ENGLAND. 

Angria* in which captivity he had been for more than 
two years [T. I. p. 370.] before he had made his escape. 
He told us what means this sea-rover used to make his 
ships sail very fast, so that no European ship could get 
away from him, so that he could not overtake it, med 
mindre han ju skulle fa det fast, which consisted in 
this, that he never kept any of his ships in the sea over a 
month ; after the lapse of which time he had it carried 
into some dock, tapped off the water, and afterwards 
made them polish the ship quite smooth and slippery 
with cocoa-nuts which were cloven in two. With these 
cocoa-nuts the ship was polished on the outside, that is 
to say, the part of the ship which was under water, 
so long that there was not much left of the cocoa- 
nut ; and as the cocoa-nut has at the same time an 
abundance of oil in it, so the surface of the ship was 
doubly polished and made slippery, glatt OCh halt. 
First the cocoa-nut, by its hardness, made the ship in the 
polishing quite smooth and polished, slatt OCh glatt, 
and secondly, the oil of the cocoa-nut made it so slippery, 
halt, that it went incredibly fast through the water, and 
had from it very little resistance. After the lapse of a 
month the oil began to diminish, and a number of Testacea, 
or snails, snackor, mussels, musslor, and such-like 
shell-fish, skal djur, fastened on to the ship, from which 
cause the ship took to going somewhat slower ; wherefore 
he at once had it drawn up on the land, or carried it into 
a dock, made them scrape off that which had fastened 
upon it, and polish it, as has been said. In this way he 
put himself in a position that no European ship could 

*The piratical state, founded by Konna Ji Angria, in the middle of the 
XVIIth century, flourished for more than ioo years, though the English, 
Portuguese and Dutch tried to destroy it. Col. Clive and Admiral Watson 
at last succeeded, and on the 13th February, 1757, took Geriah, then the chief 
stronghold of the Angrias, and broke their power. [F. W. L.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 21 

escape him, after he had once caught sight of it. All his 
ships were of oak. His strong castle on the land made 
him and his ships safe, if any naval power, sjd-magt, 
should attempt to chastise him. In outward appearance 
he was very handsome, was somewhat cruel, grym, 
especially towards the captives, whose [T. I. p. 371] heads 
he very often had cut off for his amusement. He died when 
he was only 30 odd years old, and left his trade to his 
brother, and to his sons, whom he had by his many wives. 

The 25th April, 1748. 
Description and use of the White Stone which 
is here called Portland Stone. 
This kind of stone is much used, particularly in 
London and the neighbourhood, for house building and 
other purposes, and takes its name from the Isle of 
Portland. It is a white, or white and slightly inclining to 
yellowish, and sometimes a grey stone, a species of lime- 
stone, and is very like the Freestone which has been 
described above at Tatternel, in Bedfordshire. Doubtless 
it has the same origin as this. In this Portland Stone 
there is also found a very great abundance of oyster and 
mussel shells, and other testacea. It has also the property 
that when it is sawn or broken, it smells strongly of stink- 
stone, orsten. Everywhere in London where there are 
masons' yards, one sees carls, who sit and saw this stone 
asunder into different shapes. Their saw, which they 
use for this purpose, looks exactly like any other saw, 
but has no teeth, instead of which they employ sand, 
which effects the same purpose as teeth. The operation 
is thus : they take the sand which is found here near 
London, and sift it tolerably fine. After that it is blended 
with a little clay moistened with water, laid on a board, 
which is placed above the stone they intend to saw, so 
that the board slopes towards the score, skaran, or rift, 
remnan, which the saw makes. On the upper side of 



22 KALM S ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 372] the board there stands a can or bucket full 
of water, kanna eller ambare. This vessel, karil, 
has a little pipe at the bottom, through which the water 
softly runs across the sloping board past the fine sand, 
a little of which it carries by degrees with it down into 
the score or saw cut, i skaran, when the saw requires it. 
Then the water carries down the sand which had lain in 
its way, but when all the sand has run off the board, the 
carls push more sand with a stick down to the water that 
it may bear it in the same way by degrees down into the 
saw score, sag-skaran, under the saw. Meantime, the 
carl draws the saw forwards and backwards, when this 
fine sand keeps continually falling, faller alt for et, 
under the saw blade, and thus performs the same service 
as teeth, to wear away and saw the stone. They said 
the reason why they do not use teeth on their saws, is 
that the teeth would bite so hard and fast, that no one 
would be able to keep up the sawing. With other tools 
used by masons, sten huggare, they prepare and fashion 
this stone in manifold ways. The greatest part of St. 
Paul's Church is built of this stone, right up to the top ; 
also, the Abbey Church of Westminster ; indeed, nearly 
all other Churches, as well as the high so-called Monu- 
ment. Of this stone, also large and magnificent gentle- 
men's houses are built, in London as well as out in the 
country. Besides that, grave-stones, outside window- 
frames, and the lintels, jambs and arches of doors, paving 
stones for floors, and curb-stones for footpaths at the 
sides of streets where no one drives, are made of this 
stone. It is used also to cover garden walls with, and 
walls round properties, for posts along the sides of the 
streets to prevent coachmen and carters from driving on 
to the path where people walk, for posts round fireplaces, 
chimney-posts, for window sills of buildings, for garden 
rollers [T. I. p. 373], for posts under ricks, and for 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 23 

stone steps, trapp-stenar. Of this stone, also, those 
wonderful bridges, London Bridge and Westminster 
Bridge, are built. Also, all milestones are made of it. 
In short, this Portland Stone is here used for everything 
for which the stones of Gottland,* oland, and the flaggy 
firestone, talg-stenen, of Kinnekulle can be used. 
The 26th April. 

[Paragraph " Prceservativ mot Rodsot " omitted.] 
Dikes-broar af Tegel. Brick Bridges over Ditches. 

I saw nearly everywhere in the places which lie 
around London, that where any water came to run under 
the highway, landsvagen, or also any other road, they 
had instead of any other bridge, made a bridge of brick, 
en bro af tegel. They had dug there a very deep 
ditch, walled and arched a bridge with bricks, and after- 
wards filled up with earth the part over the arch, so that 
the road was even and flat all the way across it, so much 
so that there was little sign of any bridge. [T. I. p. 374.] 
They had also managed in the same way, when any little 
beck or runnel, back eller rannel, came to flow though 
any earth-wall, mull vail, which had been cast up 
round meadows, arable fields and market gardens, or 
when it passed under any house, &c, so that the water 
there always ran under and through small arched channels 
of brick. It were much to be wished that we, in Sweden, 
should follow the same custom, for experience here shows 
that brick bridges last a long time, and from this it is 
clear that their arch, when it is properly made, is strong 
enough, kunna nog halla, to drive upon.t There can 

* "Civility and courtesy, en passant, are indigenous to the limestone 
strata of Gottland." Sylvanus, Fumbles in Sweden and Gottland. London, 
1847, 8vo. p. 156. [J. L.] 

f This now reads as a gentle satire. There are few such " country 
bridges" without a notice that they are only strong enough for ordinary traffic, 
as distinguished from traction-engines. [J. L.] 



24 KALM S ENGLAND. 

hardly be any land where larger carts and wagons are 
used, and heavier loads are laid on them than in England, 
where three times as much, if not more, is loaded on a 
public coach, en for-vagn, as in Sweden. However, I 
have seen such bridges everywhere in use where I have 
travelled in England, in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, 
Buckinghamshire, Essex, Middlesex, Surrey and Kent. 
We could scarcely make abetter use of our abundant 
granites, gra-stenar, than they if they were employed for 
this purpose. 

The zjth March, 1748. 

To-day I went up inside the Monument, as it is called, 
in London, and inspected the same. Many would shudder 
to look down from such a height, and wonder how so 
high and narrow a pillar of stone, which is hollow within, 
so that one can go up by steps inside it to the top, has 
been able to stand for so many years steady and firm. 
It seems, however, that those who live round about it on 
all sides, have difficulty in controlling their fears for the 
same in heavy storms, but further on more shall be given 
about this. 

[T. I. p. 375.] 

To get an abundance of Kitchen Garden Plant Seeds, 

The market gardeners around London have commonly 
the custom that they do not employ their time in sowing 
and cultivating all sorts of garden and kitchen garden 
produce, but they mostly keep to something special. 
Thus some are only used to sow beans, peas and spinach, 
Spinat, and leave out the other vegetables. Others 
again do not trouble themselves about those, but propa- 
gate other plants. Some do not devote themselves to 
fraga ej efter, the planting and cultivation of any 
particular plants to sell for household use, -but devote 
all their time and labour to sowing all kinds of plants tor 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 25 

( 

kitchen and flower market gardens, for koks OCh 
blomster kryddgarden, so as to provide themselves 
with seed, which they afterwards sell, and make their 
living out of that alone. Other gardeners, tragards 
mastare, only make it their business to keep trascholor, 
or nurseries, in which they have all kinds of young trees 
to sell, and so forth, so that it often happens, for example, 
that one of the gardeners who has only laid himself out 
for tree-planting, has not sown vegetables in his garden. 
Amongst those who exclusively devoted themselves to 
sowing all kinds of plants for the purpose of getting their 
seeds for sale, was Mr. Gordon, who had before been 
gardener to the famous Sherard. While I was in his 
market garden I noticed that the earth and mould, which 
he mostly used for his plants, was meagre enough in 
comparison with what is generally used in a kitchen 
garden, koks-krydd-gard. This was that the plants 
might not shoot much in leaf, but give a large quantity 
of seed, for a fat earth causes the plants to grow 
luxuriantly in stalk and blade, but there result therefrom 
few or no seeds, and vice versa, for the same thing happens 
here as in regno animali, a fat hen lays few eggs. 

[T. I. p. 376.] 

At ratt propagera Arbutus af frdn. The proper way to 
raise A rbutus from seed. 

Mr. Gordon told me that there are very few nursery- 
men who can raise, fort planta, Arbutus folio serrato, 
C. B. from seed, for it comes up well enough after it has 
been sown from seed, but when it is transplanted it com- 
monly dies. Mr. Gordon's plan for this was that he 
sowed the seed in a forcing bed, dref-bank, and as soon 
as its plants came up, he transplanted them ; for if he 
waited longer, they commonly died when they were moved 
to another place, a thing which few people know. 



26 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 378.] The 2gth April, 1748. 
Hattar Of Tagel. Hats of horsehair. 

Several ladies in this place had hats which were made 
of snow-white horsehair and looked incomparably well. 

The dome of St. Paul's. 

At mid-day I went with Mr. Warner and Captain 
Shierman up St. Paul's Kyrko-torn to see the prospect 
round London from thence. We ascended the same 
right up to the top by steps, trappor. The tower is all 
built of white Portland stone which is full of all sorts of 
petrified bivalve shells, musslor. Farther on more 
shall be given about St. Paul's Church and Tower. 

From the highest gallery, Fran ofversta galleriet, 
of this tower was a matchless view on all sides if only the 
air had got to be clear, but the thick coal smoke, which 
on all sides hung over the town, cut off the view in 
several places. From it we could count a very large 
number of Churches in London, that is to say, something 
over 60, all of which had towers, and could be distin- 
guished from the other large houses. 

Innanhvalfvet eller kapan pa detta stora 
torn, som ar inne uti Kyrkan, the inside of the dome 
of this great tower, which has galleries round about it on 
the inside, is particularly remarkable for this, that if one 
sets his mouth close to the wall and whispers something, 
hviskar nagon ting, at one of the doors, which go 
in to the dome, and another person at the same time sets 
his ear to the wall at one of the other doors which are 
on the opposite side of the dome, he hears every word 
that is whispered, nor den hvart ord, som hviskas, 
very plainly and distinctly, as when one speaks through 
a long small pipe or tube ; but if he takes his ear from the 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 27 

wall, nothing at all is heard, hores alsintet, although 
the other person whispered as loud as before. 

[T. I. p. 379.] The $oth April, 1748. 

Mull-vallar omkring angar, koks-krydd- 
g&rdar, etc. Earth-walls around meadows, market 
gardens, &c. 

A number of small enclosed meadows, pastures, and 
market-gardens, lie on all sides round and close in to 
London, and part of them also in the suburbs. Instead 
of fences, plank-fences, walls or other kind of hedge 
around all these, high and thick earth-walls were cast up. 
These earth-walls consist of the same soil, jordmon, 
as is found on the meadows, &c, viz., of a brick- 
coloured clay, tegel-fargad lera, with much gravel and 
Pebble-stones amongst it. In one place and another in the 
suburbs they had cast up walls around the market- 
gardens, for the most part merely of the dirt which had 
been shovelled together on the roads close by. The 
height of these earth-walls was various, mostly 6 feet, 
sometimes, though seldom, as much as 8 feet, yet often 
only 4 feet or 3 feet, but few below that. There was 
commonly a ditch on the outer side of them. The wall 
was broader at the bottom, but afterwards narrowed 
more and more up to the top where it was sometimes 
scarcely 6 inches broad. The breadth or thickness down 
at the ground, 8, 6, 5, or 4 feet, according to the height 
of the wall. When such a wall became old, it fell down 
in some places, for which reason it should be very often 
repaired. The height and inclination of the wall, 
together with the ditch outside it, prevented any cattle 
from getting over it as long as it was whole. By this 
means wood was spared, and no more time or trouble 
was required for repairing these earth-walls than with us 



28 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

in Sweden is yearly occupied with our garde S-g&rdar. 

Still it seems that such mud walls would not do well for 
fences with us, because our great cold [T. I. p. 380] in 
winter and the thaw, tjalen, would tear them down, so 
that they would require too much repairing. When these 
English mud walls began to tumble down in any place, 
they took some of the earth which was dug up in the 
ditch beside the wall, and daubed it over the sides of the 
wall till they were quite flat, or if the hole was large it 
was filled up with the earth just named. They are very 
anxious about this, that grass and plants should grow on 
the sides of the walls, for it hinders rain and frost in the 
winter from injuring the walls so much ; because these 
plants and their roots bind the earth, and besides that 
overgrow it so that it then tumbles down less. 

The 1st of May, 1748. 

Meadow-inclosures round London and their 
grass-growth. 

We said just now that on most sides of London, close 
in to the town, there lie among other inclosures several 
inclosed meadows or pastures, angs-tappor eller 
beteshagar, with high earth-walls round them. The 
grass-growth in them was very thick and luxuriant, 
nearly everywhere, and was now a foot high or more. 
We saw here to-day plants of Alopecurus culmo erecto, 52 [A . 
pratensis, Meadow Fox-tail grass], which was nearly two 
feet high, and its spikes, spicce, were everywhere out in 
flower. The grand opportunity for getting all kinds of 
choice manure here in London to spread on these 
meadows is the thing that especially contributes to this 
fertile growth. Their owners derived a very large profit 
from this source, for some of these pastures were let to 
those who kept cows, to supply the town with milk; 
others were hired out to butchers, to keep there for a 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 29 

time the cattle they had bought for slaughter ; some to 
brewers or others, to turn their horses in. [T. I. p. 381.] 
A fixed charge was paid per day for every animal that 
had freedom to go there, which for the whole year 
mounted up to a considerable sum. On the north side 
of London in particular there were the most meadows, in 
which there was the most beautiful grass-growth which 
can be. By the 18-20 May, the grass-growth was as long 
as in our best meadows in Sweden at the close of July. 
It was also at the afore-named time in May that they 
everywhere began to mow those meadows, which through 
the spring had not been baited by any animals. 
Bromus panicula erecta coarctata (Linn. Flor. Svec. 87) 
[Banks. MS. " varietas secalini ; " Sw. Raklosta]. 
And the above-named Alopecurus formed nearly all the 
beautiful growth on these meadows, although red or 
white clover, vapling, had sometimes mixed with it. 
It is said that the owners commonly manure them every 
autumn, in September and October, with the dung and 
dirt which is collected in London in the streets, and is 
laid outside the town in large heaps, from which they 
afterwards carry it out on to their meadows, which par- 
ticularly contributes to this their luxuriant growth. 

The 2nd May, 1748. 

To hinder thieves from climbing over garden 
walls. 
The fence, hagnad, which was seen here around 
gardens and kitchen gardens, was commonly walls of 
4, 6, or 8 feet high. In some places, though seldom near 
London, there were hedges of several thorny trees. In 
some places only were plank fences seen ; but walls were 
most used, partly because they were the most durable, 
and could best fence off violent and cold winds, partly 
because the twigs of several fruit trees could best be 



30 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

spread out and fastened on to them when one wished to 
force them to fruit early [T. I. p. 382] which has been 
treated of above. But to prevent thieves from being 
able to climb over the walls, they had daubed clay, 
smetat ler, on the top of it 6 inches high, and 6 inches 
to a foot wide. In this clay, when it had only just been 
laid on the wall, they had everywhere stuck at random, 
a large number of bits of broken bottles, bouteiller, glass, 
glass-decanters, glas-flaskor, and such like, which turned 
their sharp edges, hvassa kanter, upwards and towards 
all sides, and prevented anyone who had the desire to 
climb over the wall from taking hold of it with the bare 
hands, lest these sharp and edged glass-bits should cut 
his hands all to pieces ; and when he in climbing over 
should get so far as to sit on the wall, he might get so 
much cut that he would not be so soon cured after it. In 
England it is very easy to get such broken glass-bits at 
inns and beershops, of which there are here so large a 
number. 

The 3rd May, 1748. 

Hjelp for Prast-barn. Help for Priests' Children. 

To-day Vocal and Instrumental Musique was performed 
in St. Paul's Cathedral, by more than 100 performers, 
where a considerable number of people assembled to 
hear it. No one was admitted who had not paid a fixed 
charge, which was regulated according to the place he 
wished to have in the church. The money thus collected 
was distributed to poor priests' children for their main- 
tenance and education. The London Gazette related that 
they collected to-day in this way something more than 
,£400 sterling. This which took place to-day was only a 
Prceludium to a great Musique which was fixed for the fol- 
lowing Thursday, or the 5th hujus in St. Paul's Cathedral, 
when the Archbishop [T. I. p. 313] of Canterbury, nearly 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 31 

all the Bishops who were in London, together with an 
innumerable concourse of people, were assembled there to 
hear the beautiful Musique, which was esteemed the 
principal of all Musique, which are held yearly in London. 
The Friday's Gazettes afterwards made known that they 
collected somewhat over £700 sterling in the day, which 
was all devoted to the education and help for both sexes 
of poor priests' children. 

Ceremonies at the beginning of May. 

Now was seen at many places in the streets a custom, 
plagsed, which milk-girls practise here in London, at 
the beginning of May, or at the advent of summer. 
They had bound together several vessels, karil, such as 
cans, pint pots, drinking-cups, kannor, stop, skalar, 
&C, which were mostly of silver, but sometimes also of 
tin, bleck eller tenn, and made with them a device, 
skapnad, either like a Pyramid, or like a man, or most 
frequently like a woman, or also in some other fashion. 
Some of these images, bilder, were decked with a 
number of flowers. They were carried either on a 
barrow or on the head. A spelman, or fiddler, who 
played the viol, always accompanied them, together with 
several girls. They mostly stood in front of each house 
where they were accustomed to offer milk for sale, when 
the fiddler fiddled, da spelmannen spelte, and one or 
more of the girls danced. The usage was that after they 
had done this, they received pence from the persons at 
whose house they danced. They began this on the 1st 
May, and kept it up for some days. 

The /\th May, 1748. 

In the morning I visited the Duke of Argyle, a man 
who was a very great lover of Mathematique and Natural 
Science [T. I. p. 384] but in particular of Botanique, and 
the branch of that science which is called Dendrologie, 



32 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

which treats of trees. After that I spent a great part of 
the day at the house of Dr. Mitchell, who was born in 
Virginia, in North America, and had spent a great part 
of his life there, and was thus well acquainted with all 
the circumstances of that country. Among other things 
he gave me the following account, which I afterwards 
found was correct, when I went to America. 

[Vax af et slags Pors. Deferred. See American 
Notes below.] 
[T. I. p. 393.] The gth May, 1748. 
In the morning I returned to London. 

Amnio vulgaris til skjul i koks-krydd-gardar. 

Reeds as screens* in market gardens. 

Instead of other fences it was here a very common 
practice to employ reeds, ror, as a shelter or screen, til 
Skjul eller skarm, for the plants which might grow in 
the heat of the sun, i solbaddet. To this end they had 
taken reeds, Arundo, 99 [Banks, MS., Phragmites], set 
them up perpendicularly, and made of them as it were a 
paling-fence, et plank, in a straight line to the length 
required. The reeds were here laid quite close together, 
and nearly two inches thick. Above and below were two 
thin rods, smala stanger, between which the ends of 
the reeds were set and bound fast with bast. The ends 
of these rods were bound fast to poles, palar, driven 
down into the ground. Often instead of any other fence, 
hagnad, around the kitchen gardens they had nothing 
but these reeds set up in the way just described. 
Huru vagar omlagades. How roads were repaired. 
I have before said that the roads cannot last long on 
account of their heavy carts and wagons, which with 

*" Screen, skreen, a device to keep off the wind, hail, &c." Bailey's 
Dictionary, 1753. 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 33 

their wheels soon cut deep ruts, hal, down into the 
ground. To mend these after they have once been made, 
all the road was hacked up with pickaxes, hackor. After 
that they took a large harrow on which a weight was 
laid, with which they afterwards harrowed all the road 
smooth and even, so that when the horses come on to it 
walking, they often chose a new track, spar, so that 
the wheels thus came to go on harder places than before. 
The road is also often harrowed without being first 
hacked up, but this is only done when the tracks of the 
cart wheels, sparen efter karr hjulen, are not 
particularly [T. I. p. 394] deep. Else it was much the 
practice here that when the road became uneven it was 
hacked up, and the hacked-up ground was carried to the 
wheel-ruts, Mien efter hjulen, and filled into them. 

The 10th May, 1748. 
Koks-krydd-gardar, deras hagnad, ans, etc. 

Market-Gardens, their fences, cultivation, &c. 

I have named above (p. 386 orig.) that the land around 
Chelsea is almost entirely devoted to nursery and vegetable 
gardens. The same is true of the land on all sides round 
about London, that it is mostly used as pleasure-gardens, 
nurseries, and market gardens : because det Stora 
London (the vast L.) and the frightful number of people 
which there crawl in the streets, kralar pa gatorna, 
pays the market gardeners many fold their labour and 
outlay. These nurseries and market gardens are sur- 
rounded either with earth-walls or walls, mull-vallor 
eller murar, or wooden fences, tra-plank, or living 
hedges of trees, or with walls of oxhorn, of which more 
below. The earth-walls have been described above 
(p. 379 orig,), the walls, Murarna, on p. 381 orig., 
although the greatest part of them have not such glass- 



34 KALM 7 S ENGLAND. 

bits inlaid on the top. All these walls are built of brick. 
Plank-fences made of boards were also used here in many 
places, but the boards which were used for this purpose 
were no other than those they had bought from old 
broken up ships and boats, Skepp, farkostar, OCh 
batar, which were still quite full of nails. Thus they 
knew in this woodless district how to make use of old 
ships and boats after they had become useless for the sea. 
They also availed themselves very much of hedges as 
fences. Hawthorn was the tree of which most hedges 
consisted ; but besides this I also saw hedges of elm, 
especially of a [T. I. p. 395] small kind of it, also of yew, 
maple, sloe, and several others, Barrlind, Afvenbok, 
Slan, &C. In gardens no tree was so much used for 
hedges as yew, Barrlind, Taxus, which admitted of 
being clipped and managed in various ways. How they 
used reeds for a shelter has just been told (p. 393 orig.). 
Besides ordinary vegetables there were planted in the 
market gardens which lay nearest the high road all kinds 
of flowers, which the passers by bought and carried away 
with them. I saw also the whole of this season both 
men, old women and girls, Karlar, karingar, OCh 
pigor, walk or sit in the streets of London with baskets 
full of all kinds of flowers, bound in small bunches, 
knippor, which they offered to the passers-by, who also 
bought them in numbers. The vegetables which were 
most numerous in the market gardens at this season were 
beans, peas, cabbages of different sorts ; leeks, Purio, 
Allium porrum, L; Pip-ldk, A. fistulosum, L; Gras- 
16k, A, schcenoprasum, L., chives; radishes, lettuce (?) 
" Sallad " ; asparagus, sparis, spinach. The greater 
part of these were sown in rows, so that they could more 
easily clear away the weeds between them with English 
hoes, tvara hackor, and keep the earth loose. Between 
the rows of peas, beans and cabbages there was a distance 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 35 

of 18 inches or 2 feet, and 6 inches to 9 inches or more 
between the plants in the row. They hoed here entirely 
with small light English hoes, and the mould was moved 
on to the stalks of the plants more and more as they 
grew, so that they stood as it were i kupor,* that is 
" banked up." Peas were growing on pea-sticks. The 
tops of the stalks were cut off the beans so that they 
might shoot more into pods of fruit. Between the plants 
which were sown thicker the earth was cleared of weeds 
and hoed up with quite small hoes of about 2 inches 
broad, and with a handle, skaft, 2 feet long ; but it cost 
enough to the one who hoed, who was thus obliged to go 
very crook-backed, krokryggig, and stooping, luta, 
the whole day. 

[T. I. p. 396.] The nth May. 

In the morning we walked out to see the places which 
lay on the S.W. side of Chelsea, over the bridge at 
Fulham, and went some distance on the other side of the 
last-named place. At all places between Fulham and 
Chelsea, which is a distance of two English miles, and 
round about Chelsea, we saw little else than mere gardens, 
Tra-g&rdar, and especially vegetable market-gardens, 
kdks-krydd-gardar. We have told about them before. 
Large brick houses, stenhus, which belonged to gentle- 
men and others were scattered here and there among the 
gardens, Tra-g&rdarna, to which those who lived in 
London, now and then, especially on Saturday afternoons, 
went to take the fresh air and to have the advantage of 
tasting the pleasures of a country life. 

Fulhams Bro. Fulham Bridge [Putney B.~\ Fulham is a 
Parish situated two miles from Chelsea, and four from 
London, to the S.W. In appearance it is a pretty town 

* " Kupa. Amas de terre autour d'une plante." — Veste. Lex 1807. []. L.J 

D 2 



36 KALM^S ENGLAND. 

with several smooth streets. All the houses are of brick, 
very beautifully built, some of which belong to gentlemen 
and Herrskaper, " Lordships," in London, are hand- 
somely built. Round about this place the country is full 
of gardens, orchards and market-gardens, both for plea- 
sure and use, and it can indeed be said that the country 
here is everywhere nothing but a garden and pleasance, 
Tra och lust-gard. 

The river Thames runs close past this parish on the 
south side, so that the district can conveniently have 
convoi for passengers from London. Here there is a 
wooden bridge over the river, built on piles driven down 
into the bed. All those who walk or drive over it must 
pay bridge-money, bro-penningar. Each person who 
goes on foot pays a halfpenny, en halfpence. 

[T. I., p. 397.] 
Stora fait. Large Common. 

On the other side of the Thames opposite Fulham 
there lay a large and tolerably flat and bare common, 
fait, which was abandoned to pastures. It was for 
the most part overgrown with genista spinosa, furze, which 
was now in its best flower, so that the whole common 
shone quite yellow with it. In one place only was it cut 
down, either for fuel or something else. In some places 
we saw ling here ; but it was quite small. May not the 
fertility and goodness of the soil be the reason of that ? 
And may it not rather thrive better on dry and meagre 
places, torra och magra stallen. I also saw small 
plats with Reindeer moss, Ren massa [_Liclien rangiferinus], 
which also was very short. The soil was a brick-colored 
coarse sand, tegel fargad grof sand, with a little soil, 
Svartmylla, on the top. [Wimbledon Common and 
Putney Heath.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 37 

At forekomma dam p& vagar. To prevent dust on 
roads. 

From the sun and strong west wind, the roads were 
now so dry that when vehicles, vagnar, and horses went 
on them there rose from them so much dust, stoft och 
dam, that it was very difficult to get along, for both eyes, 
mouth and nose were filled with it. Trees and plants by 
the wayside were covered with it. To remedy this we 
saw at one place a man driving a cart, karra, which was 
made like a brad-lar, or large wooden box, but had at 
the back a transverse row of small holes. This box, 
kista, was now full of water, and when a board at the back 
which stopped up the holes was raised the water ran out 
by degrees where the man drove, and made the road 
quite wet, so that the dust could no longer rise up. It 
was in front of a gentleman's house that he drove up and 
down the road with his cart. I afterwards saw at several 
places [T. I. p. 398] such carts used, especially when 
the King went up to Parliament. 

[T. I. p. 403.] The 15th May, 1748. 

In the afternoon I walked out on the North side of 
the town to see the country on that side. The land here 
was mostly divided into grass fields, angs-tappor. 
Beautiful and very well-built villages, farm-houses, and 
buildings were scattered here and there amongst them. 
These villages and houses were commonly surrounded 
with beautiful gardens. A multitude of people now 
streamed out here from all sides of London to enjoy 
their Sunday afternoon and take the fresh air. In all the 
aforesaid villages there was a superfluity of beer-shops, 
inns, and such-like houses, where those who came from 
the town rested. There were also small summer houses, 
lust-hlLS, built in the gardens, with benches and tables in 



3^ KALM'S ENGLAND. 

them, med bankar och bord uti, which were now all 
full of swarming crowds of people, folk-sk&ckar, of 
both sexes. 

[T. I. p. 404.] The 16th May, 1748. 

Ormar handterade med hander. Snakes handled 
with hands. 

We saw to-day as well as on the previous days a 
common man clad in rags, who had a large collection of 
living Vipers and snakes, Hugg-ormar och Snokar, 
which he went and carried about in the streets, dem 
han gick och bar omkring p& gatorna, to show to 
folk for money, at visa at folk for penningar. He 
could handle them with his hands quite quietly, and 
without the snakes offering in the least to bite him, 
utan at Ormarne bodo det ringaste til, at hugga 
honom. He had a bag, pase, in which he laid them, and 
when anyone gave him " en halfpence," he took them out 
with his hands, either one after another or also by the hand- 
full, as many as he could hold. Often to awaken more 
astonishment, he stuffed either a viper or a snake whole 
into his mouth, antingen en Huggorm eller en 
Snok helt och hallen in uti munnen p& sig, and 
kept his mouth shut for a little while, and then opened 
his mouth and let the snake crawl out of it. When he 
slipped them on the ground they sought to run away. He 
said he had sometimes been bitten in the thumb by them 
when he had caught them ; but he knew such an antidote 
for it, et sadant bot derfore, that it could not do him 
any harm ; yet he would not make known what it con- 
sisted in. That the snakes, snokarne, did not do him 
any harm was no wonder, but how he managed with the 
vipers, men hum han bar sig &t med Huggor- 
marna, I know not. This I saw, that they not only did 
not offer to bite him but also when a stick was pointed 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 39 

at them, da en kapp sattes &t dem, or when some 
one poked their heads with the end of his stick they 
never bit at the stick. Some of the more forward of the 
small crowd, sometimes dared to take hold of them 
without the snakes attempting to bite them : whence 
there seemed to be reason to believe that this man had 
clipped off the teeth with which they [T. I. p. 405.] 
bite. Such were our opinions about this, to-day. The 
following day Dr. Mitchel paid him highly, when he made 
known to Dr. Mitchel in what his art consisted, that he 
could so carelessly handle the vipers ; viz.: in this, that 
when he had caught one of them fast, he had cut off the 
two large teeth, which they, as a cat with its claws, can 
shoot out and bite with, or draw back. After they have 
lost them, they can do no further harm. He related that 
sometimes when he had caught them, he had been bitten 
by them, but that his antidote for that had been Snake- 
Oil, Orm-olja, which he had made in this way, that he 
had boiled the snake-fat, Orm-ister, to oil, which oil he 
constantly carried with him in a glass bottle, and when 
he was bitten, he smeared himself with this oil over the 
place where he had been bitten, when he had no further 
harm from it, after he had merely rubbed in the oil.* 

* In M. Morin's Reptiles et Poissons, 144 pp., Paris, 8vo., is pp. 62-3 an 
" Addition a l'article de la Vipere Commune" consisting of two extracts from 
Valmont de Bomare, a contemporary of Kalm, of which the second is 
"Remedes contre la morsure de la Vipere. Les remedes vulgaires 
" contre la morsure de la vipere (p. 63) sont exterieures et interieures. Les 
"exterieures sont de lier promptement, si Ton peut, la partie au-dessus de la 
" morsure, to tie tip if possible the part above the bile ; d'approcher le plus pres 
" de cette morsure un morceau de fer rougi au feu, to hold a piece of red hoi 
' ' iron close to the bite, ou de bruler sur la plaie un peu de poudre a canon, or 
u to burn a little gunpowder on the zvound, ou bien enfin de scarifier la plaie et 
" d'appliquer dessus de Tail, du sel ammoniac piles ensembles, to scarify the 
" zvound and apply to it a mixture of garlic and sal ammoniac pounded together. 
" As an internal remedy, on avale l'alcali volatile pris a des doses assez fortes." 
— (Valmont de Bomare.) [J.L.] 



40 KALM S ENGLAND. 

He said that among other things, the difference between 
a viper and a snake, Huggorm OCh en snok, was 

this that the viper when he sees that a human being 
wishes to strike him dead, always holds the head higher 
than the neck ; but a snake in the same case holds it 
lower down than the neck. 

[Defer a note on North America.] 

[T. I. p. 408.] The iSth May, 1748. 

At hindra damm pa gator. To prevent dust on roads. 

From the great drought which there had now been 
for several days there rose a strong and thick dust in the 
streets of the town ; but still more outside the same from 
the grinding of horses, wagons and carts, so that one 
could scarcely open his eyes, sa at en knapt .... 
kunde se up med Ogonen, especially outside the 
town. To somewhat prevent this in the streets of the 
town, there were here and there men or boys who with 
shovels cast about the water which had come to run out 
of the pumps on to the street, and thus made the streets 
wet; Those who had their shops close to each other, 
strax bredevid, where there was much wheel traffic, 
had the streets sprinkled in this way. On the places in 
front of the houses, platsar utanfor hus, where people 
walked backwards and forwards, water was also spread 
for the same reason. 

[Defer the visit to Sir Hans Sloane.'] 

[T. I. p. 409.] The igth May, 1748. 

[Defer Friesland, &c] 

[T. I. p. 410] Cedrus af Libanon burit frukt. Dr. 
Mortimer said that he had been out into the country to visit 
an acquaintance, where some cedar trees from Lebanon 
had been planted, one of which had now for the first time 
borne fruit and had cones, kottar. It was planted there 



LONDON AND SUBURBS." 41 

from seed, fifty or fifty-two years since, and from the time 
it was sown it has not been moved from the same place. 
The others, which had been sown at the same time, but 
afterwards moved, had not yet shown a sign of fruit. 

The 20th May. 

To-day we took a walk down to the Greenwich side on 
the south side of the river Thames. In all our walks out 
into the country, however often they occurred, we took 
care to notice, som fast ofta Skedde, togo vi noga 
i akt, what the grass growth in the meadows consisted 
of, its state of luxuriance, with various things which belong 
to the cultivation of meadows, angs-skotseln, but as this 
would take up too much room in a description of travels, 
en Resebeskrifning, it is left for some other Academic 
work. 

Stangsel omkring krydd-gardar akrar, angar, 

&C. Fences around market- gar dens, arable fields, 
meadows, &c. 

The palings and fences, stangsel OCt hagnad, which 
on this side, quite near to London, were used round 
nursery and market gardens, arable, and meadows, tra- 
och koks-krydd-gardar, &c, were commonly such 
mud-walls or clay-walls, mull-valler, as have been 
previously described [p. 379, orig.~\. In other places 
there was a similar mud-wall, but still not so high, 
on which the Elder tree, Flader-tra, Sambucus, had been 
planted, and which have made a thick and beautiful 
hedge. By all these earth-walls there were commonly 
ditches, which still, in this drought, had an abundance of 
water in them. 

[T. I. p. 411.] In some places on these walls there were 
Willows, pilar, planted, about two or three fathoms from 
each other, which had been cut off, or polled, about 12 



42 KALM S ENGLAND. 

feet above the ground, after which they had struck out a 
multitude of new shoots, telningar, which were after- 
wards cut off again, & nyo, as often as they were required. 
In other places, and everywhere somewhat farther from 
town, here in Kent, they had hedges of hawthorn round 
their inclosures, with which afterwards all kinds of leaf 
trees had mingled themselves. 

Beskaffenheten af hogderna. 

About three or four miles S.E. of London, there lay in 
Kent some high hills side by side. These were long- 
sloping on all sides, and consisted of earth, jord. I saw 
on them, right up to the summit, either arable fields or 
meadows all divided into small inclosures or tappor, 
fenced with hawthorn hedges, with a number of other 
trees among them. The soil, Jordmon, of which the 
upper crust on these hills consisted, was the brick- 
colored clay, which is found everywhere round London, 
den tegel fargade leran som har omkring London 
ofver alt fiimes, blended with a finer or coarser sand 
of the same colour. Some of these inclosures were sown 
with wheat, others with barley ; some with peas and 
vetches. A great part with beans. Some were laid 
out as meadows, and now stood in an abundant crop of 
grass. The earth, jorden, on all these hills commonly 
looked as if it had been a fine loose powdered brick, en 
fin 16s sonderstott tegel-sten. The prospect from 
them was behagelig, delightful. On the west was seen 
the whole of London, how it lay and extended itself in a 
crook along the river Thames, and made a show with its 
many towers. [T. I. p. 412.] The top of St. PauVs 
Church dome seemed to be almost the same height as these 
hills. The coal smoke which constantly hangs over 
London, sufficiently prevented me from seeing it clearly, 
but it stood as in a fog, tokn. The ships which sailed 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 43 

on the Thames could be seen quite well. The country 
all round resembled a garden, and its many hedges pre- 
vented me from seeing much into the fields. In Kent the 
country looked like a collection of wood-grown hills, 
skog-bevaxta hogder, with ploughed fields among 
them. 

Hvetet. The wheat was sown in stitches or small 
ridges. Commonly, such a rygg was ten feet, sometimes, 
also, twelve feet broad, with water furrows between each 
rygg. No ditches were used on all the ploughed fields 
we saw to-day, except by the hedges. The height of the 
ridges in the middle was six inches, nine inches, or a foot 
higher than the bottom of the water furrows, and sloped 
towards both sides. The wheat here stood beautiful, 
no ears, ax, were yet seen. The barley, kornet, was 
sown in the same way as with us in Sweden, in broad land. 

Arterna, Pease, were all sown in rows, and there was 
always three feet and sometimes three feet six inches be- 
tween the rows. They had with hoes, hackor, cleared away 
the weeds between the rows, and moved the loose mould, 
mullen, up towards the stalks of the peas. No pea- 
sticks, ruskor, or anything else had been laid here for 
the peas to climb up, but they were lying along the 
ground as they were large. It was a very convenient 
fashion to sow pease in this way in rows, i rader, for 
one could so very easily take away all the weeds 
with a rake, ty en hade ganska latt fore, at med 
en kratta Utdda Ograsen. In the gardens on this 
side of the town we saw pease [T. I. p. 413] in the same 
way sown in rows ; but then there was not commonly 
more than eighteen inches, two feet, or two feet six inches 
between the rows. 

Bonorna, Beans, on these fields were all sown in 
broad cast, yet on ten feet wide stitches, but in the market 
gardens at Southwark the garden beans were all sown in 



44 KALM S ENGLAND. 

rows two feet or two feet six inches between the rows. 
In some places in the gardens there was a number of 
asparagus beds, and beans were planted in the passages 
between them. Vicia Sativa, tares were always sown in 
broad cast, and not in rows, yet on ten feet broad stitches. 

Huru far ransa bart ogras emellan Bonor. 

How sheep clear away weeds between beans. 
In one of the inclositres which in the aforenamed 
manner were sown with beans, we remarked that they 
had turned in thirty odd sheep, n&gra OCh 30 far, which 
went there and eat off the weeds between the beans, 
which weeds they ate up, and bit off quite close to the 
ground, but did the beans not the smallest harm. We 
spent along time in carefully examining, vi gingo lange 
och sago med noga flit efter, der Faren gingo 
midt ibland Bonorna, where the sheep went amongst 
the beans, whether they had not touched them, but we 
could not mark a single leaf of them bitten. The weed 
which grew here in multitudes, and the principal weed 
was Sinapis (Linn Flor Svec. 548 — Rapistrum Flore luteo 
C.B. or the common Aker-senapen [Sinapis Arvensis. 
LzWz. —Lilja, Skanes Flora. I 472; Brassica Sinapistrum, 
J. Hooker, St. Fl. 1870, p. 30. Charlock, at Aldbury, 
near Tring, " Curlock ; " at Whitwell, Herts, " Carlock ; " 
at Rusper, Suss ; " Kelk," and in Sussex, generally 
" Kilk,"] together with some plants of hvitrot* (Triticum, 
Linn. Flor. Svec. 105), both of which the sheep ate 
greedily, especially the Charlock. When the sheep had 
eaten to repletion they lay down among the beans to rest, 
at hvila.f They thus performed a double service, first, 

* So on p. 387 or/»: but elsewhere >; Qvickrot " as in Linn Fl. Si>, 105. — 
Tril. repens. [J. L.] 

f A verb preserved in Eng. " To while away the time." Fr. Chomer, to 
rest, 16 Cent. Chanmer, Provencal, Chaume, "the time when flocks 
rest." [J.L.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 45 

that they cleared away the weeds, and secondly, that 
they manured the field by their droppings. 
Vaxternas frodighet. The luxuriance of the plants. 
On all sides around London, both near to the town 
and also [T. I. p. 414] somewhat farther from it, I 
remarked that a number of plants were commonly much 
more luxuriant and larger than with us in Sweden. Thus 
karrborre-bladen [kard-borre, Lilja, Sk. Fl. 565, 
Lappa; Arctium Lappa, J. Hooker, St. Fl. 187, Burdock 
Dut, Klissen-kruid ; Ger, Klette, Hoff, 1791, 1. 283 ; Ital. 
Bardana ; Fr. Bardane.] Burdock leaves, leaves of 
kattost (Malva) Mallow; so also Senecio Vulg., ground- 
sel, Aparine Vulg. [Galium Aparine L.] Urtica Urens 
maxima [U. dioica. L.] great nettle ; hundfloka [" gul 
Stormhatt," Veste ; Aconitum Napellus L. Monkshood} 
and several other such plants were double as large, if 
not more, as they commonly are in Sweden, which all 
seems to be a sign of the soil, and its richness hereabouts, 
partly natural, partly from long continued manuring and 
turning over. 

The 21st May, 1748. Sir Isaac Newton's Graf. 
Among other beautiful monuments which are erected 
in St. Peter's or Westminster Abbey Church here in London, 
where the Kings of England are both crowned and buried, 
there is also that which has been erected in memory of 
the great Mathematicus and Philosophies, Sir Isaac Newton.* 
He lies buried in the nave, i framre delen,f of the 

* This touching dedication of Kalm recalls the words of Hume — " The 
"severest scrutiny whigh Newton's theory has undergone, proceeds not 
"from his own countrymen but from Foreigners, and if it can overcome the 
"obstacles which it meets with at present in all parts of Europe, it will pro- 
" bably go down triumphant to the latest posterity." — Essay on the Rise of the 
Arts and Sciences, 1742. 

f This shows that Kalm must have entered by the West door, now 
closed, [J. L.] 



46 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

church immediately in front of the choir, strax for 
choret, where some of the old royal tombs are. Close 
above the grave and on the side towards the choir his 
monument is erected, where he himself lies carved in white 
marble, and rests on his right elbow, och stodjer den 
hogre handen under hufvudet. Above him is a 
celestial globe, himmels-glob, carved also in white 
marble, on which the paths of the comets are set out in 
gilt lines,* hv&rpa Cometernas gang med forgylte 
Linier star Utsatt, also these words: " Dec. 24, 1680. "f 
Under the right elbow are four books in Folio, on 
which he rests. These books lie one upon another, and 
there is set forth on one side, p^ ena sidan, what they 
contain, viz. : on the highest stands the word " Divinity " ; 
on the next under it, " Chronology" ; then [T. I. p. 415] 
" Opticks " ; lastly, " Philo. Prin. Math."J Down below 
him stand carved angels, anglar, [beautiful little boys], 
who hold mathematical instruments, &c. § 

The inscription on the monument is this : — 

H. S. E. 

ISAACUS NEWTON, Eques auratus, 

Qui animi vi prope divina 

Planetarum Motus, Figuras, 

Cometarum Semitas, Oceanique iEstus, 

Sua Mathesi facem praeferente, 

* These gilt lines have disappeared. [J. L.] 

f This date has disappeared. For the great comet of 1680, see J. Herschel, 
Astron., Ed. 1867, Art. 573. [J. L.] 

% These words have all disappeared. From the position of the Folios, they 
must have been gilded on the ends, or what would be the top-edges of the 
Folios if standing upright, as on the books shown in the Frontispiece to the 
2nd Ed. of the Dunciad, 1729. [J. L.] 

§ Mathematics. Thus says Hume : " Religion and Politics, and consequently 
" Metaphysics and Morals. All these form the most considerable branches of 
" Science. Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, which only remain, are not 
11 half so valuable." Essay on the Rise of the Arts and Sciences, 1742. Time, 
that proves all things, has given another verdict. [J. L.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 47 

Primus demonstravit ; 

Radiorum lucis dissimilitudines, 

Colorumque inde nascentium proprietates,* 

Quas nemo antea vel suspicatus erat, pervestigavit, 

Naturas, Antiquitatis, S. Scripturae, f 

Sedulus, Sagax, fidus interpres, 

Dei O.M. Majestatem Philosophia asseruit, 

Evangelii Simplicitatem moribus expressit. 

Sibi gratulentur Mortales 

Tale tantumque extitisse 

HUMANI GENERIS DECUS. 

Nat. XXV. Dec. a.d. MDCXLII. Obiit XX. Mar. MDCCXXVI. 

Around the Monument itself is an iron railing, jarn- 
galler.J On one side of the monument there are these 
words : " Gul. Kent Pict. et Archit. invenit." ; on the 
opposite side " Mich. Rysbrack, sculpsit." 

On the grave-stone in the pavement there are these 
words : 

" Hie depositum est 

QUOD MORTALE FUIT 

ISAACI NEWTONI." 

[T. I. p. 416.] The 22nd May, 1748. 

In the afternoon I went with some Englishmen and 
the present Professor of CEconomy at Lund in Sweden, 
Herr Mag. Burmester, out to Hampstead, a little " stad," 
or town, some few miles north of London, in a very 
delightful place, to which on Sundays, and " vid vackert 
vader " (in fine weather), a great many people ride or 
drive and walk in the summer to enjoy themselves. 

Af hvad jordmon hogderna omkring London 
best&. Of what soil the hills round London consist 

The hills, Hogderne eller jord-backarne, which 

* Newton discovered the polarization of light, t Kalm omits the "S " 
before " Scripturse." % There are no iron-railings now. [J. L.] 



4-8 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

lie in the neighbourhood of London, on the Kent side as 
well as on the Essex and other sides, resemble outwardly 
to a great extent the hills in Hertfordshire, which com- 
monly under the top soil, ofra jord-skarpan, consist of 
bare chalk. Reasoning upon analogy I was inclined to 
think that the hills in the neighbourhood of London also 
consisted lower down of solid chalk,* and that only at 
the top lay a thick crust of the brick-colored clay, which 
occurs everywhere about here ; but several people whom 
I consulted about this denied utterly that there is any 
chalk under these hills. To-day I got still farther evidence 
that this seems to have the truth on its side, for Professor 
Burmester told me that he had seen down at Woolwich 
a shaft, graf eller grop, dug to about twenty English 
yards down through such a hill, where the strata lay 
nearly in this order : — 

On the top soil, svartmylla .... 

Then a stratum of the brick-colored clay . . . 

Further down a bed of all sorts of mussel and snail 
shells . . 

Next to that a bed of a hard clay full of small round 
stones .... 

Under which a fine white sand which continued 
without being bottomed [T. I. p. 417] as far down as the 
pit was dug, but no chalk occurs in this hill.f A man, 
who lives close to it, was said to be the owner of this pit, 
out of which he sells the fine sand to various persons to 
use for their brick-making and other purposes. 

Vinter-Krassa til Sallad. Winter-Cress for Salad. 

Erysimum, 557 [E. Barbarea, now Barbarea Vidgaris~] 
or Winter-Cress, grows abundantly in England on the 

* Kalm was right. The chalk underlies the whole of the London basin. [J. L.] 
f This section must have gone close on to the chalk, but did not quite 
reach it. [J. L.l 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 49 

banks of ditches and elsewhere. It is sown here in the 
kitchen gardens and used in the winter-time and also in 
the spring while it is still tender, as salad, or more cor- 
rectly speaking as gron-k&l, chouvert, in the same way 
as we in Sweden prepare spinach. If they have not 
planted it in the kitchen gardens they avail themselves of 
the wild ones. 

Angar och deras gras-vaxt. Meadows and their 
Grass Growth. 
On the whole of this side of London which we visited 
to-day there was a great multitude of inclosures, or 
tappor, nearly all laid out as meadows. The land 
around Hampstead consisted mostly of hills, long-sloping 
on all sides. The grass-growth in them was very beau- 
tiful, and now as long as any on our very best meadows 
in Sweden at the end of June, which is principally owing 
to this, that these meadows are here commonly manured 
every year. On most of the meadows around Hampstead 
the grass growth consisted almost solely of Bromus, 87 
[Banks, MS. 'varietas secalini''], which here stood as 
thick as the thickest rye-fields, and every plant was 
2 feet 6 inches high or more. When this grass grew on 
high hills, kullar, and on very dry places, it was not 
longer than it commonly is in Sweden. 

[T. I. p. 418.] 

Some other kinds of grass had mingled themselves 
amongst it, but they were so few, that it is not worth 
while to mention them. Among them, however, Alope- 
curus 52 [A. pratensis L.], was the commonest. I also 
noted however, that in most of the beautiful meadows 
which are found round London, both these aforenamed 
kinds of grass have nearly always formed the most 
plentiful, best, and most luxuriant grass-growth. I 
should also think that if we in Sweden, especially near to 



50 KALM S ENGLAND. 

the towns, looked after our meadows with the same care 
and diligence as the Englishmen around London, our 
meadows would also yield, kasta af sig, as much and 
as good hay as these, if not more so. The soil was here 
the same as everywhere around London, viz., a brick- 
coloured clay blended with a finer or coarser sand of the 
same colour, the surface of which, by the decay of the 
plants, had got to be mould, mylla. A great many of 
the meadows on this side were now mown, and the hay 
partly carried, partly also it still stood in rows or cocks. 

[Defer American Note.] 

[T. I. p. 419.] The 23rd May, 1748. 

Hvad Skilnad jordmon gor &t vaxter. 

What difference the Soil makes to Plants. 

It is sometimes wonderful to see what a difference the 
climate, as well as the soil, and other circumstances, make 
to one and the same kind of plant. Medicago, 621 
[M. lupulina'] covers, vaper pa, the acre-reins aker- 
renar, of Upland in Sweden, and the roadsides in clay-soil, 
ler grund, where it creeps out of the earth, and often 
spreads itself out for a length of two feet on all sides. 
When it gets into vegetable and other kitchen gardens it 
grows still more luxuriantly and larger. Here around 
London I found it on the hills and knolls, p& hogder 
OCh kullar, where it grows so miserable, small, and 
slender, Spinkot, that I had great difficulty in recog- 
nizing it. I saw hardly a plant of it which had attained 
a length of 6 inches, but most were only 4 inches long. 
Some were also only 1 \ inch. The soil was here a mixture 
of brick-colored clay, sand, and humus, svartmylla, 
which seemed to be a good earth ; but still this plant 
was here [T. I. p. 420] so small, though at the same time 
a number of other plants grew luxuriantly enough. Lolium, 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 5 1 

104 \_L. perenne.~] Rye grass had almost the same fate. 
It grew small and very slender, spinkot, while Bromus 
87 [var. secalint] and Alopecurus, 52 \_A. Pratensis. L.] 
thrive in this earth very well. I particularly noticed in 
the case of the Br omus, that it here formed the longest 
and principal grass-growth on nearly all the meadows 
round London, and grew to a length of 2 feet 6 inches or 
3 feet, whereas in Sweden, on the dry sand hills, it com- 
monly is not over 4 inches high, slender, and miserable. 
[Defer American Note.] 

Vagglos fordom sallsynte i Angland. " Wall-lice " 
or bugs formerly rare in England. 

Mr. Catesby said that about twenty years ago they 
hardly knew here in England what a " Wall-louse " was ; 
but since that time they had travelled over here in ships 
from foreign countries, so that there are now few houses 
in London in which these least welcome guests have not 
quartered themselves.* 

Huru Foglar och Piskar i en natural Samling 
bast conserveras. How Birds and Fishes are best preserved 
in a collection. 

Mr. Catesby described the method which he had 
used on his travels to prepare and preserve birds and 
fishes, which he designed for his collection. It consisted 
in this, that when he had got a bird he took [T. I. 
p. 422] the entrails, inalfvorna, out of it, then 
sprinkled snuff all over the inside, put it in an oven, 

♦"Their original name was Chinche or ' Wall -louse '( Ray. Hist, 
insect. 7), and the term Bug, which is a Celtic word, Wei. Bwg, signifying a 
ghost or goblin, was applied to them after Ray's time " [d. 1674]. " Bug " 
in its old sense e.g. " Thou shalt not nede to be afraid of any bugs by night " 
(Mathew's Bible Ps. xci. 5), Winter's Tale, III,, 2, 3, also in King Henry 
VI. t 5, 2, and in Cymbeline twice, became obsolete. (Kirby and Spence, 
Entomol.Ut.lV) [J. L.] 

E 2 



$2 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

which was as hot as when bread is taken out of it ; for if 
the heat is too great all the fat melts. When the speci- 
men had remained a short time in the oven it was taken 
out to cool. It was again put in the oven, and left 
there till it was quite dry ; for the trick consists in this, 
that it must not be dried too quickly, but gradually 

Afterwards, if one wishes to carry them 

anywhere, they are laid in casks, tunnor, or such like, 
snuff is sprinkled over and in them, to drive away moth, 
mal, and other injurious insects, skade-krak. Fish 
are best preserved in spiritu Vint. 

[T. I. p. 422.] 

Hvart land har Sin Sed. 

Each country has its peculiar customs in one thing and 
another, and so it is in England. I believe there is 
scarcely a country where one gets to see so many 
Peruques as here. I will not mention that nearly all the 
principal ladies, and also a part of the commoner folk, 
wear Peruques, but I only speak of the men, who in short, 
all wore them. The boy was hardly in breeches before 
he came out with a Peruque on his head, which was 
sometimes not much smaller than himself. It did not, 
therefore, strike one as being at all wonderful to see 
farm-servants, Bonde-dranger, clodhoppers, Torpare, 
day-labourers, dagsverks-karlar, Farmers, Bonder, 
in a word, all labouring-folk go through their usual 
e very-day duties all with Peruques on the head. Few, 
yea, very few, were those who only wore their own hair. 
I had to look around a long time in a church [T. 1. 
p. 423] or other gathering of people, before I saw any- 
one with his own hair. I asked the reason for the 
dislike of, and the low estimation in which they here 
held their own hair ? The answer was, that it was 
nothing more than the custom and mode. Here in 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 53 

England short peruques were mostly used, yet some of 
the grand people also had " locks " on them, lackar 
uti. They were dear enough. For one guinea it was 
passable, and did not look very handsome. I should 
have to give at least a couple of guineas, if I wished to 
have one of some value, and a good one. 

I never noticed that any Englishman used boots, 
stoflor, in any case, except when he was riding and 
sitting on a horse.* On other occasions shoes, skor, 
were always used. Sometimes, when any snow fell in 
winter, so that it was dirty in the streets, there was here 
and there an individual who wore boots.t If anyone in 
any case walked in the town with boots, he had always a 
riding-whip, piska, in his hand as a sign that he had 
ridden in, rest in til hast, or was just about to mount 
and ride out of the town. If he did not do this, he was 
looked upon as a foreigner, at whom the people could 
stand and stare, as at something extraordinary. I re- 
member that, during my visit to the country in dirty and 
rainy weather, when I had palled on my boots, to go 
drier about the feet, I was asked by one and another if I 
intended to ride out to any place that day in such bad 
weather. 

The sword, Varja, is very seldom worn except by 
members of Court, or some foreigner. 
The 25th May, $748. 

In the afternoon I went with Dr. Mitchell, Mr. Wharf- 
son, the well-known Mr. Graham [T. I. p. 424], and some 
other Fellows of the Royal Society, out to Dulwich, in 
Surrey, and other places in that neighbourhood, to see 
what rare plants might be found there, as well as in Kent. 
The whole of this tract of country was most delightful. 

* " Rida och sitta til hast." Sitta til hast=Lat. Equo insidere. [J. L.] 

f "Boots [Boltes, Fr.], leather coverings for the legs in traveling." 
Bailey, Eng. Die, 15th Ed., 1753. [J. L.] 



54 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

It went up and down in long sloping hills with valleys 
between. We had a continuous series of well-built 
villages, gentlemen's houses, ploughed fields, meadows, 
orchards and gardens, kitchen - gardens, commons, 
utmarker, &c. 

The country was everywhere divided into small in- 
closures, with hawthorn and other hedges round them, 
so that one could only suppose that he was travelling all 
the way through a garden. Here and there appeared 
small woods of all sorts of leaf-trees. When a view of 
the country was obtained from some of the highest hills, 
backar, it looked pretty enough ; but the great number 
of hedges caused it to look, a little farther off, as though 
it were entirely overgrown with woods, through which 
some brick house peeped here and there ; for as the 
inclosures were for the most part small here, the hedges 
prevented the ploughed fields and meadows which lay 
between them from being seen. 

[Defer American Note.] 

[T. I. p. 425.] 

Godsel lagd i hogar; angars godning. 

Manure laid in heaps ; manuring meadows. 

Nearly everywhere here in England it was the prac- 
tice to carry out dung and other dirt, which is collected 
in farms and villages, and lay it in large heaps by the 
ploughed fields, to lie there for a time and ferment toge- 
ther. Those who live round London buy the dung and 
refuse which is collected in the streets, and carried out 
and laid in large heaps outside the town. This manure 
they afterwards carry out in the spring on to their mea- 
dows, market gardens, ploughed fields, &c, lay it in some 
corner of them, or also on the common close by, in a 
great heap, where it lies the whole summer under the 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 55 

open sky, and ferments together. On the top it is com- 
monly covered with straw-litter, halm-byssje. As a 
great part of the land round London is laid out in 
meadows and pastures, and the owners are very careful 
by all means to cover over the grass-lands with it, be- 
cause they can thus obtain a larger profit from them, so 
they commonly manure their meadows once a year, which 
is done thus. In September or October, or also later, 
when the cattle are no longer driven on to the meadows 
or pastures, they take the manure which has lain and 
rotted in the above-named heaps, carry it out on to the 
meadow, and there spread it out somewhat thinly. The 
rain, which at this season of the year commonly follows 
this, washes the manure down to the roots of the grass, 
so that it does not evaporate, at den ej svinner Mrt 
i luften. Hence it happens that the meadows around 
London bear so luxuriant and abundant a grass-crop tha t 
they can be mown so early, and several times a year. 
[T. I. p. 426.] 

This well rotted manure, the time of year when it is 
spread out on the meadows, and the English climate, in 
which not much snow falls at a time in the winter to wash 
away the best and fattest of the manure in melting, cause 
the meadows to fare incomparably well on it, and accounts 
for no one here knowing much about what it is for the 
manure spread on the meadows to burn up the grass. 

Rag sallsynt omkring London. 

Rye rare around London. 

To-day for the first time we saw rye growing here in 
England, for in all the places we had been at before we 
had not seen one rye plant, rag-stand, because it is 
wheat that is grown everywhere here. This rye now 
stood in the ear, everywhere, and was tolerably fine, so 



56 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

that rye would thrive here very well, if they had not wheat, 
which always has the preference. 

Senfardig Var. Late Spring. 
Everyone here in England said that all vegetation 
was three weeks later than it had been for many, indeed 
for sixty years [1688] in this country ; when we never- 
theless thought that it was three weeks earlier than it 
could be about Stockholm in Sweden, at this time in 
ordinary course. 

Halso-brunnar och hus dervid. 

Mineral waters and houses near them. 

At one place there were on the side of a hill some pit- 
wells dug in the bank, whose water they use to drink in 
the summer, like that of any other mineral spring, sur- 
brunnars. The water had no outlet, and tasted like 
the water in ordinary clay-pits, ler-gropar, and it seems 
that the benefit of this exists only in folks' imagination. 
Several cabins, kojor, were built close by for the visitors 
to the spring. The walls were of sods, the roof of furze, 
and the bare ground [T. I. p. 427] served for a floor. 

At Dulwich there was a well dug and walled round 
deep down into the earth, which had the reputation of 
having restored many to health. The water was said to 
be purging. The great heat and thirst drove us to drink 
a great quantity of it, without the slightest effect. 

Matvarors pris i Krigstiden. 

The price of provisions in time of war, 

I asked whether provisions were dearer here in Eng- 
land in war time than at other times. They answered 
" No," but they are then commonly cheaper. The reason 
is that it is then forbidden to carry them out of the king- 
dom. That meat was now dear was due to the cattle 
disease which had carried off such a number of animals. 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 57 

[T. I. p. 439.] The 28th May, 1748. 
Huru ler beredes til tegel-sl&ning. 

How clay is prepared for brick making. 

Immediately outside the town on the north side near 
the road to Hampstead, there were large pits where the 
clay and sand [T. I. p. 440] were dug up, from which 
they made bricks close by. The soil here consisted of a 
brick-colored clay, mingled with a fine sand. This sandy 
clay, sand blandadeleran, was cast together in large 
heaps in this way, that when one stratum of it had been 
been laid a foot thick, or less, there was spread over it a 
stratum of coal ashes about 4 inches thick or less, then 
sand and clay mixed, after that coal-ashes again, and so 
on. Next to that the water was led from the ponds, vattu- 
groparna, to it through troughs, rannor, as much, 
that is to say, as was required. The sand-mixed clay, 
coal-ashes, and water, were then mixed together for as 
long a time as was necessary to mingle them thoroughly 
together. After that this clay so prepared, was thrown 
into trucks, karror, specially made for the purpose, and 
carried to the place where the bricks were made. 

The 2gth May, 1748. 

In the morning I went in company with Director 
Campbell out to the Duke of Argyle's house at Whitton, 
situated ten miles west of London. The Duke himself 
invited me, and begged me to come there once before I 
left England, for which visit he himself fixed the day. 
This Duke's house lies on a great flat common,* et 
Stort flakt fait. The soil was very meagre, mager, 
nearly all around being bare ling-heath, bara ljung 
hed ; but the Duke has been able to show what plea- 
sure, art, and money are able to effect, and that by their 



* Hounslow Heath. [J. L.] 



-58 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

means the most meagre places are converted into 
fruitful land. The Duke, who had himself the greatest 
insight into Botany, as well as Mathematics, and other 
branches of Natural Science, Naturkunnogheten, 
had also had a beautiful garden laid down here. The 
first beginning of it was made in [T. I. p. 441] the year 
1723, when the Duke first bought, tilhandlade sig, 
this ground. Here, there was a collection of all the 
kinds of trees, which grow in different parts of the world, 
and can stand the climate of England out in the open 
air, summer and winter. The Duke had himself planted 
very many of these trees with his own hand. There was 
here a very large number of Cedars of Lebanon, which 
appeared to have the best opinion of a dry and meagre 
earth, and it seems that it might be suitable for planting 
on our great heaths and sandy tracts, stora heder OCh 
moar,* in Sweden and Finland. 

Of North American Pines, Granar, Firs, Tallar, 
Cypresses, Thuyas, all these and many other kinds, 
there was an abundance, which throve very well. There 
were already small groves of them. Diligence and Art 
have not been spared here to make everything delightful. 
The Duke comes out here from London as often as he 
can find time from his duties. Here is also a beautiful 
orangery. There were no more than just sufficient rooms 
in the house, though they were very pretty, but not to 
be compared with such Castles, Slott, and Palaces 
which such great lords are used to have, and are 
especially common in England. The Duke himself 
observed the thoughts, which in consequence of this, 
arose in my mind and in that of my travelling companion. 
" Your wonder," said he, " probably is why I have not a 
" larger and grander house here than this ; but I have 
" first decided to prepare this meagre soil, and make it 

* Mo. glarea sterilis. Wallerius, Mineraloqia, Stockholm, 1747. [J. L.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 59 

" available to plant all kinds of trees in, and after 
" setting the trees in the order, and in the positions they 
" ought to occupy so that they may grow, then, as I 
" have the money, I can always build the most hand- 
" some Castle in one year, and even a shorter time, 
" when I [T. I. p. 442] choose to do so, which it would 
" take a poorer man 10 years to build, but to effect so 
" much as that a single tree shall take root and grow as 
" much in one year as it would otherwise grow in ten, 
" that can I never effect with money, but Nature must 
" have its time ; therefore he who intends to build a 
" house, and lay out a garden round it, ought to make 
" a beginning with planting trees to gain time. , ' 

In the evening we went back to London, together 
with Dr. Mitchell, Mr. Watson, and several other 
naturalists, who had been out at the Duke's this day. 

The 30th May, 1748. 
During the whole of my visit to England, both before 
and after the date just given, I made numerous observa- 
tions not only on the cultivation of meadows, but on the 
plants of which the hay and grass growth in their 
meadows particularly consists, and which plants are the 
most profitable in their meadows on various kinds of 
soil ; which plants horses, donkeys, cows, sheep, swine, 
and other animals usually eat ; and which, on the con- 
trary, they reject, and always pass by; with several other 
(Economico-Botanical observations ; but, as they would 
take up too much room in a description of travels, they 
are left for another occasion to be published either in 
Academic Disputations or under some other name. 

The 2nd June, 1748. 

Plants useful for sowing on the sides of Earth-walls, to 
fasten the mould by. 
I have several times before mentioned, that in several 



60 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

places [T. I. p. 443] around London, high and sufficiently 
steep earth-walls are used instead of a fence, gardes- 
g&rd, or other hedge around their ploughed fields, 
meadows, and pastures, and market gardens. When the 
earth becomes dry at the sides, especially when there 
has been a frost, it is very much given to slip down and 
destroy the wall. I remarked, however, that nature 
herself was diligent in remedying this, and that art came 
to her aid, which was effected by certain plants that had 
taken up their abode on the sides of the walls, and had 
bound the earth together with their roots, and by the 
shelter of their leaves, med bladens skugga, prevented 
the sun and frost from doing violence to the mould which 
without the plants would be loose. Among them there 
were in particular the following : — 

Qvickroten, 105 [TriHcutn], was the best of all 
grasses, and was also the commonest on the sides of the 
walls. It grew thickest of all, the most luxuriant, and 
the richest in blades, and made the longest grass growth. 
The highest was commonly 2 ft. 6 ins. to 3 ft. 

Hundexing, 83 [Banks MS., Dactylts Glomerata] 
stood in some places plentiful enough. 

Renlosta, 85, was also a beautiful grass for fastening 
earth-walls, especially where the earth is loose. I saw 
it growing in many places on the sides in abundance, 
luxuriant and rich in blades, indeed it often stood as 
thick as the thickest rye field especially under the shade 
of the hedges. Its height was 2 ft. 6 ins. to 3 ft. In 
some places Akervinda, 173 [C. Arvensis, L. Ger. 
Winde.] Small Bind Weed, covered the whole south side 
of the high and very steep earth walls, where it had 
bound the earth together with its thick growth, plentiful 
leaves and shade, myckna blan och skugga. 

In other places there grew Hordeum, 107 [H. Muri- 
num~\ quite alone on both sides of the earth-wall, where 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 6 1 

[T. I. p. 444] it stood like the thickest rye-field, but was 
not taller than about i foot high. It seemed as if this 
grass would thrive best on the south side of the wall. 
In many places the sides of the walls were covered over 
either with Quickroot, 105 [Triticum repens] or Renlosta 
(85) or Scandix, 241, seminibus hispidis \_S. Anthriscus, now 
Anthriscus Vulgaris] Beaked Parsley, each of which in its 
place and by itself made the thickest growth that can be, 
and certainly seemed to be very profitable and serviceable 
for sowing on the sides of earth-walls, to fasten the loose 
mould by. It seemed as if the Quickroot would thrive 
better on the north side of the walls. These walls con- 
sisted of the brick-colored clay found everywhere around 
London, which has frequently been mentioned before. 

The 3rd of June, 1748. 

In the afternoon I was at the house of Dr. Cromwell 
Mortimer, Secretary of the Royal Society in London, 
where I then made the acquaintance of Mr. Baker, who 
had written the beautiful book on Polyps, in which he re- 
counts the many experiments he had made with them. 
[Omit a silly note on a child's skull found in a chalkpit.] 

[T. I. p. 445.] Luteola, 439. [Reseda Luteola, L.] 
Dyers Weed, Weld, grew everywhere outside London on 
the earth-walls. That it can be contented with the 
driest earth I noticed from this, that it grew in fissures in 
the tops of the walls in the greatest heat of the sun 
where all other plants, even Poa Murorum [P. Compressa, 
L.] were entirely withered up and killed by the great 
heat ; but this stood there green and in flower, more 
than 18 inches high. The cattle always left it uneaten. 

The 6th June, 1748. 

List of births and deaths, &c, in several places. In 
a printed description of London, in Folio, there is a list 



62 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

of births, deaths, and marriages in several of the largest 
towns of Europe, from which to draw a comparison with 
London, and to show the size of London. I will in the 
last volume (D.V.) of these travels give how many are 
annually born, die, &c, in London. [This promise was 
never fulfilled.] Now I will only shortly state them con- 
cerning the foreign places, as they stood entered in this 
book. [Pp. 446 and 447 of T. I. contain Tables for 
Nine towns.] 

[T. I. p. 447.] 
Several good institutions in London. 

In several places, especially in the larger streets, 
where the people stream backwards and forwards, there 
sit either men or old women with shoe-brushes, blacking, 
and such like, ready to clean shoes for anyone who may 
require their services. Thus when [T. I. p. 448] one 
walks in the street, and gets muddy about the shoes, he 
turns to one of those who stand in the street, and allows 
him to clean his shoes. It is not necessary to take off 
one's shoes for this purpose, but one sets the feet with 
the shoes on upon a little table, stol, which is put there, 
on purpose, when they are cleaned. A halfpenny is paid 
for each shoe. This is a great advantage in this place, 
where the women are so very careful about their clean 
and white floors, besides that, one can go neat about the 
feet. 

In many places, and almost everywhere in the large 
streets, there stand carriages for hire, hyr-vagnar, 
ready to carry, on payment, anyone who wishes to use 
them. These hire-coachmen, hyr-kuskar, do not get 
to take payment, according to their own judgment, if they 
are employed in the town, but they have a certain Taxa, 
how much they shall receive from the one place to 
another, above which they cannot go without a fine, 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 63 

Utanboter, but where anyone takes a chaise, vagn,* to 
a certain place outside the town it then commonly de- 
pends on a bargain. Besides this there is the law or 
regulation, lag eller stadga, for these hire-chaises in 
the town, that if one wishes to have the carriage for 
several hours, a half or a whole day, then it is paid for 
according to the number of hours, in this way, that two 
shillings are always paid for the first hour, but after that, 
only a shilling is paid for each hour. In the same way 
one can almost anywhere get a carrier, akare, to convey 
anything that may be needed. Similarly there is always 
a multitude of porters, Bar are, ready to carry anything 
from one place to another. 

In several places, especially at the west side of the 
town, where the Court resides, der Hofvet bor, there 
are seen a number of Post Chaises, which stand for hire 
at anybody's service. 

At all the steps by the river, and in the "lanes," 
granderna, which run down to the same [T. I. p. 449] 
there stand whole troops of rowers, Roddare, who as 
soon as they become aware of anyone coming a long way 
off, set up a horrible noise, et faseligt buller, so that 
by shouts and upraised hands they made known their 
readiness to carry one where he wished to go on the 
river.t 

The Penny Post is also here a useful institution, which 
consists in this, that if one has a letter or anything elsej 
which does not exceed a pound in weight, to send to 
anyone in London, or the places situated close by, it is 

* " We engaged what is termed a wagon, but which bears a tolerable re- 
semblance to an ordinary post chaise, to take us to Brill," &c, p. 32, 
Descriptive History of Holland. Grandfather, 1819. l2mo. [J.L.] 

t Vincent Bourne gives an amusing description of this in his " Iter per 
Thamisin." 

" At nautae venientem ubi me videre sagaces, 
Sese disponunt. omnes clamare parati, 
Et jam protensis manibus diversa loquuntur," <fcc. [J.L.] 



64 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

sent by the Penny Post, which is established at several 
places in London, and one pays for it one penny, when it 
quickly and safely reaches its destination, snart och 
sakert kommer fort. Besides this, there are 
certain men who, every day, when the Post is going to 
start from London to any place, go round with small 
bells, which they ring. Anyone who has a letter to send 
to the Post, can give them to such a man, when he for 
one penny safely carries it to the Post, which is a great 
convenience in this large town, where many have over 
half a mile to walk to the Post-house. 

[Water-supply by bored-tree-stem-pipes.~\ 

About the advantage of having sufficient water at 
home in one's own kitchen by means of pipes made of 
bored stems of trees, pip-st&ckar, which bring the 
water there underground ;* about the streets, which at the 
sides are laid with smooth flat stones with posts at the 
outside, within which people walk quite safe from all 
vehicles and horses; about the links, lycktor, which 
everywhere in the larger streets are lighted at dusk 
uptandas i skymningen, and burn the whole night, 
together with many other useful institutions, I have either 
told before, or am going to speak further on. 

The gth June, 1748. 

Vaux-Hall. In the evening I went with some of my 

* Several of which were to be seen in 1885 lying as excavated at the 
northern end of Shaftesbury Avenue close to Oxford Street, of different sizes, 
some veiy large and others quite small, mains and branches. In ' ' Hydraulia," 
By Wm. Matthews, Loud., 1835, 8vo., pp. 66-68, is some interesting 
information respecting these wooden pipes from which I extract the following. 
The trees were elm ; at one time the New River Company alone had 400 
miles of wooden pipes, which were entirely renewed in the course of every 20 
years. The bore varied from 3 to 6 or 7 inches, and a few near the Reservoirs 
10 or 12 inches. Between 1810 and 1820 the whole of the New River Com- 
pany's wooden pipes were replaced by iron ones. [J. L.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 65 

acquaintances to Vauxhall, to see that much-vaunted 
pleasure garden, where the youth of London, almost 
[T. I. p. 450] every evening in the summer, divert 
themselves. This pleasure-garden lies a little beyond 
Westminster Abbey, ofvanfor W. A., but on the other 
side of the river Thames. It is full of allies, planted 
with Lime and Elm, Lind och Aim, where people can 
walk about. At one place is a high special Altan, built 
with a roof over it, and benches in the Altan, on which 
the musicians sit. At 6 o'clock in the evening, they 
begin to assemble, when the music commences at 7 or 
8 o'clock in the Altan, with a very large number of 
different kinds of instruments, among which is also an 
organ [orgor, as in French, in the plural.] When they 
have played for some time, there appear Chanteurs or 
Chanteuses, Sangare eller Sangerskor, who also sing 
from the Altan, l&ta hora sig fr&n A ; sometimes only 
one sings, sometimes two, and sometimes three together. 
While they are singing, they are accompanied now and 
again by instruments. When they have continued for a 
time, there is an interval, halles n&got up, both with 
songs and music, when those who have come out there 
either promenade, spatsera omkring, in the garden 
or sit down at one of the many tables there are, and have 
brought to them various foods and drinks, wines, confi- 
tures, punch, meat, stek, apples, fruits, &c, which are 
all tolerably dear, so that those who sell them do not 
seem to lose anything by it. No man or lady enters the 
garden without paying a shilling at the entrance. After 
that anyone is free to buy anything or not. One can in 
in the meantime listen to the music, walk about, see and 
be seen, without any further cost. As soon as it begins 
to be a little dusk, lamps are everywhere lighted up, 
which are here in the garden in great multitudes, and 
which burn for some time after 10 o'clock, when the 



66 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

songs and music cease, and all the guests hurry away. 
[T. I. p. 451.] There are here ready all the statues and 
ornaments which are used in gardens. Thus the means 
of supporting themselves and earning money are mani- 
fold. Here the musicians and men and women singers 
earn their subsistence. Here those make large profits 
who sell various kinds of provisions. Rowers and hire- 
coachmen are well satisfied with this institution, because 
they have a large profit out of the large number of people 
going and coming thither and thence, partly in chaises, 
partly in boats, dit och dadan, dels i vagn, dels 
med bat. The owner, who leases out this pleasure- 
garden to those who make all these arrangements, is said 
to gather a pretty penny, vackra penningar, out of it 
in the summer.* I will not now talk about the ruffians, 
skalmar, who often plunder and rob those who are 
leaving it at night. Meantime, its use by folk may in a 
certain way be good, but then it is certain that it is also 
in some ways harmful, men sa sl&r det ej felt at den 
OCk i somt ar skadelig, because the youth is not a 
little ruined through it when he gets into a habit of 
coming here every evening. He gets accustomed to do 
no work, and, on the other hand, to squander money in 
various ways. Young ladies, also, might not always be 
improved to the pitch of perfection here. 

The 10th June, 1748. 
Mr. Peter Collinson's Garden at Peckham. 

In the afternoon I went out to Peckham, a pretty 
village, en vacker by, which lies three miles from 
London, in Surrey, where Mr. Peter Collinson has a 
beautiful little garden, full of all kinds of the rarest plants, 

* "Samla vackra penningar," it is curious to find this expression, 
though in the plural, in the Swedish. [J. L.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 67 

especially American ones which can endure the English 
climate, and stand out the whole winter. However neat 
and small this garden was, there was, nevertheless, 
scarcely a garden in England in which there were so 
many kinds of trees and plants, especially [T. I. p. 452] 
of the rarest, as in this. It was here that Mr. Collinson 
sometimes, as often as he got time from his business, 
amused himself in planting and arranging his living 
collection of plants. 

Hast knockors nytta. 

An use of horse-leg knuckle-bones. 

For the border or the outer edge of the flower-beds, 
Mr. Collinson had set knuckle-bones, knockor, of horse 
or ox-legs, such as the boys with us in Sweden and Fin- 
land use to make their so-called is-laggor, " ice-legs," 
with which they run upon the ice. The transversal end, 
den tvara andan, was set down in the ground, and 
the round curled end stood upwards. All were the same 
length, and quite close to one another, which performed 
the same service in hindering the earth from slipping 
down from the beds, as if there had been boards set 
round them. This use of horse-leg bones in kitchen- 
gardens I have seen before at several places just outside 
Moscow, in Russia. 

Hum Viscum S&S. How Mistletoe is sown. 

Mr. Collinson told us his method of sowing Viscum 
(Linn. Fl. Svec. 816), which consisted in this. The berry 
is squeezed open, Baren kramas sonder, and laid on 
the smooth places on the bark, pa de slata stallen i 
barken, of some tree, when it very quickly fastens itself. 
But if they are laid in the rimes or cracks, skramor 
eller sprickor, of the bark of a tree, they will fasten 
on to it with difficulty. 



68 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Huru Tran-bar kunna sas i en Tragard. How 

Cranberries can be sown in a garden. 

Mr. Collinson showed me, among other plants, our 
common Tran-bars-ris Vaccinia, 315, palustria, Lob. 
[V actinium Oxycoccos'], Cranberry [0. palustris. Pers., 
Hooker], which are commonly very difficult to trans- 
plant into a garden. His method, in which he sought to 
follow Nature, was this. They were sown in a pot, 
kruka, full of earth ; but instead of leaving the hole at 
the bottom open, as in other flower-pots [T. I. p. 453] 
so that the water may run off and not stand at the bottom 
of the pot and stagnate, syra, he had stopped up the 
hole, so that the water stood and stagnated. The pot 
was set in the shade, and moss laid upon the earth, in 
which V actinium palustre grew. He said that he also got 
a great number of other bog and water-loving plants to 
grow by this method. 

Trag&rds anlaggning. 
How to lay out a garden. 

On this point, Mr. Collinson remarked that one of the 
principal circumstances in connection with it is, so to 
arrange that it has the morning sun. No one can believe 
what an influence it has when the sun gets the first thing 
in the morning to dry up the vapours, dunster, that 
have fallen in the night. 

Then, as regards the shape of a garden, Mr. Collinson 
held the quadrilateral, fyrkantiga, to be the best, and 
the circular not so good ; for the Duke of Richmond had 
his garden laid out in a circular form, which seemed as 
if it ought to ward off the drift of the weather more, 
but the experience was quite otherwise, for when the 
wind works itself in there, it does more harm than if it 
were four-sided, because it here courses round the garden, 
loper rundt omkring trag&rden, because the cir- 
cular form hinders its escape. 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 69 

[T. I. p. 406.] The zyth May, 1748. 

Fences or barriers around meadows, market gardens, 
&c, of Ox-horn. I have above in several places described 
the fence, stangsel och hagnad, which they mostly 
use near London round their kitchen gardens and 
meadows, &c, which consists of high cast-up earth walls, 
mull-vallar, but now I will tell about another kind of 
fence, hagnad, which they also avail themselves of here 
very much, and is such : An earth-wall is cast up in the usual 
way. The breadth or thickness at the ground is made 
proportionate to the height of the intended fence, for the 
higher the wall the broader the basis. When the earth 
has been cast up to a height of about six inches it is 
levelled all over the top. Thereupon they have ready to 
hand a multitude of the quicks or inner parts of Ox- 
horns ; for the outer part of the horn itself, is taken off 
and sold to comb-makers and others who work in horn ; 
or these have, after they have bought the whole horn 
from the butcher, retained the outerpart, and left the 
inner and useless part for this behoof. This quick is so 
cut off that part of the skull commonly goes with it. 
The quicks are then set quite close beside one another 
over the earth that has been cast up for the wall, and 
this so that the larger and thicker ends of the quick, or 
that to which a portion of the skull is attached, is turned 
outwards or lies just in the face of the side of the wall. 
In this way two rows of quicks are laid, viz. : one row 
on one side of the wall, and the other on the other, so 
that the small ends of the horn quicks meet in the 
middle. Over this is afterwards cast earth about six 
inches thick, when again in the aforenamed manner is 
laid a stratum of double-ranged ox-horn quicks [T. I. 
p. 407], viz., so that one row turns the large ends 
towards one side, and the other towards the other. 

It is thus continued alternately, skiftevis, with earth 



70 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

and ox-horn quicks till the wall has reached the desired 
height. Only it is noted that the wall is battered, or 
made narrower and narrower the higher it gets. Thus 
there may often be seen in such a wall as many as six 
strata of ox-horn quicks. The object of using these 
quicks is principally to bind the earth in the wall by 
them, and make it steady that it may not so soon slip 
down. Sometimes there were less strata of these quicks 
in a wall, as five, four and three ; but then there was 
also more earth between each stratum, up to the thick- 
ness of one or two feet ; but such a wall was not so 
lasting as when more layers of ox-horn quicks were 
inlaid in it. In some few places there were walls of 
bare ox-horn quicks laid quite thick one upon another, 
only that they filled up the spaces between the horns 
with mould. Thus they knew here to make use of that 
which in other places is thrown away. 

[T. I. p. 453.] The nth June, 1748. 
Ox-horn Walls and barriers around Market Gardens. 
To-day I saw on the north side of the Town a barrier or 
wall around a market garden, which was built of bare 
ox-horn quicks. The height thereof was four feet, the 
breadth [T. I. p. 454] the same. It was not here as in 
the former place laid strata-wise of ox-horn quicks and 
earth, but the horns were piled up on one another as 
thick as ever they could find room, and the interstices 
only were filled up with mould. The large ends of the 
quicks were turned outwards. The sides of these walls 
were quite perpendicular. On the top there was as 
much earth laid as would lie, som kunde ligga qvar, 
and this was now overgrown with the following plants, 
which bound it together : — 

Convolvulus, 173. [C. Arvensis.~\ 

Hordeum, 107. [H. Murinum.'] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 71 

Triticum, 105. [T. RepensJ] 
Senecio, 690. 

Scandio, 241. [Anthriscus Vulgaris.'] 
Cerastium, 399. [C. Viscosum.~\ 

The 1.2th June, 1748. 
Quakarenas Gudstjenst. The Quaker's Service, 

In the afternoon I was in one of the Quaker's churches 
to see their ceremonies at God's service. The)' had 
neither pulpit, predikstol, nor altar, but only benches. 
The men sat mostly separately by themselves, and the 
women on their side also separate, and they did not mix 
with each other, as is done in other churches. Nearly 
all the men had their hats on their heads, and they only 
took them off while prayers were being read. Here there 
were no regular priests, but any one of them, be it man 
or woman, was a spiritual priest, en andelig Prast, 
who began to speak and preach in the church, as the 
spirit, according to their belief, gave them the inspiration, 
alt som Andan, efter deras tro, gaf dem uppen- 
barelseil in. To-day there preached two old men, of 
whom the one who spoke last, delivered a very- beautiful 
sermon. He scarcely said anything which he did not at 
the same time prove from the Holy Scripture. It all 
pointed to this, that men [T. I. p. 455] ought more and 
more to put off their sins, and seek to enter into fellow- 
ship with God. This people is a very paiseworthy body, 
because they are commonly more temperate and sober- 
minded, saktmodigare, more peaceable, stillare, 
more charitable, hjelpsammare, and betake themselves 
more to guarding against all resentment, and outwardly 
sinful life, than a great part of the Presbyterian as well as 
of the English Church, in both of which latter they do 
not commit the. great fault of neglecting the Sacraments 



72 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

like the Quakers, who are never baptised, and never go 
to God's Holy Communion, heliga Nattvard, because 
they say that they are spiritually baptised, dopte pa et 
andeligt satt, and also are spiritually partakers of our 
Saviour's body and blood, besides some other points in 
which they err. 

Further on, in my description of Pennsylvania, which 
is a place entirely of Quakers, I have more to tell about 
this people, when I shall produce the Rules and Church 
Ordinances, according to which they are regulated, and 
which they hold as a chose sainte, en heligdom, that 
only the principal among them have in manuscript, but 
which are never allowed, with their knowledge, to be seen 
by anyone else. [Kalm did not fulfil this promise.] 

[T. I. p. 461.] The zyth June, 1748. 

Brist pa Spring-kallor omkring London. 

Want of Spring-wells round London. 

On all sides of London which I visited I do not know 
that I ever saw any springs, kalla, which spring up out 
out the earth, such as occur everywhere in Sweden, but 
nearly all the water which they use in London and the 
villages round it, is led to the town or villages partly 
through underground pipes or tubes from some lake or 
river far away, and partly they have dug large pits and 
ponds where the rain-water is collected. Thus there is 
found in nearly every meadow a large pond, grop, with 
sloping banks on all sides in which is collected an 
abundance of water, which serves for the cattle to drink 
when they are kept in these enclosures. Notwithstand- 
ing this want of springs around London, yet no place in 
the world [T. I. p. 462] suffers less from want of water 
than this town, where superabundant water is led through 
underground channels to each and every house, or also 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 73 

by continually pumping and water-forcing machines from 
the river Thames. * 

The iSth June, 1748. 
Nyttan af Ickorns-Svantsar. Use of Squirrels' tails. 

The hairs which they used here for Artists pencils 
Rit-penslar, were taken from squirrels' tails. Those 
who prepared them said that those which are taken from 
English Squirrels' tails are not much good, but the best 
are taken from a kind of squirrel which comes from 
Russia. 

The igth June, 1748. 

Ox-horn quicks, in addition to walling purposes are 
carried out on to the high roads and there spread out, 
earth and sand are then laid upon them, which makes 
the road firm and durable. 

The 22nd June, 1748. 

En Sten af Gamla Carthago. A Stone from 
ancient Carthage. 

As I was walking through St. Dunstan's Churchyard 
in Stepney in company with others, we saw a stone 
which was said to have been brought from the Ancient 
Carthage, in whose walls it had formerly lain. It was 
now built into the wall, on the East side of the small pro- 
jecting [T. I. p. 463] wing or Church Porch, which was 
on the north side of the Church. On this stone there 
was the following legend : — 

" Of Carthage Great was J a Stone 

" O Mortalls Read with pitty ! 

" Time Consumes all, it Spareth none, 

" Man, Mountain, Town, nor Citty : 

*The London Bridge water-wcrks founded 1582, by Peter Morice, and 
subsequently augmented. For descriptions and views see Beighton, Phil. 
Trans. 1731, & Matthews' Hydraitlia, 1835 pp. 26-28. 8vo. [J. L.] 



74 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

" Therefore, o Mortalls, all bethinke 
" You, whereunto you must ; 
" Since now Such Stately Buildings 
" Lye Buried in the Dust. 

"Thomas Hughes, 1663." 

Several people had written their names on the stone 
here and there, by which they had made the inscription 
sufficiently indistinct. 

Vitriols-verket och Kokningen. The manufacture 
and boiling of Vitriol, 

At the Establishment of Herr Sell, a Swede, we saw 
his FiYnoZ-Manufacture, and the whole process of boiling, 
which is shortly this. The Material of which this Vitriol 
is made is a pale iron-pyrites, Svafvel-kes, of different 
shapes. This iron-pyrites is taken, or found, somewhat 
more than 100 miles from London, near Harwich, where 
it is found on the sea bottom, pa sj 6-botten,* and is 

* It happens that Urban Hjarne at p. 340 of a work entitled " Den Be- 
svarade och Forklarade Anledningens Andra Flock. Om Jorden och Land- 
skap i Gemeen." Stockholm, 1706, in a section " Om Jordens Floo," About 
the Strata of the Earth, has the following : " There is also a noteworthy de- 
scription of the Stratum, floo, in the cliff, backen, near Harwich in 
" England, which has been described in detail by M. S. Buschenfelt. When 
" the sea is at the ebb or low water, this bank, backa, is in all 70 feet high 
" from the water-line up to the edge of the cliff at the summit, consisting — 

Ft. ins 
11 First y on the top, of ordinary soil . . . . .06 
" Next to that follows a reddish kind of earth ... — 
'•' Next to that some horizontal beds of broken bivalve shells, 
" forkrossade musslor, sand, and whole bivalve and 
"univalve shells, masslor ooh sneckor, sand mixed 
"with pebbles and flint-stones, Klapur, sand, och, 

" flint-steen, under one another — 

"Again coarse sand containing bivalve-shells, Mussel- 
" grus, and sandbeds, sandhvarf, intermixed as a 
" streaky mass — in all . . . . . . . 10 o 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 75 

there collected in large quantities and carried to different 
Vitriol works in England. A great many of these pieces 
of iron-pyrites, Svafvel-kes-Stycken, are exactly like 
wood, twigs, &c, so that even the medullary rays, 
savrandar, in the branches can be seen. These bits of 
wood have been so impregnated by the sulphurous spirit 
or vapour that they are now entirely changed into a 
Svafvel-Kes or lump of iron-pyrites. See Dr. Walle- 
rius' Mineralogie, p. 340.* 

The lengths of these pieces of iron-pyrites are 6 inches 
to a foot, as thick as a man's arm, more or less. Oyster 
shells are also found [T. I. p. 464] in it. But they 
are mostly unchanged only that they are rusty on the 
outside. 

The lumps of iron Pyrites or Marcasite, Svafvel- 
kesar, are not available for boiling Vitriol out of at once, 

Ft. ins. 
" After that, there comes a fine reddish and thin-streaked 

" mass of shells, musslemast, of clear and clean 

" stomusslor, to a thickness of 80 

" and are just as if they had been designedly pounded in a 
'• mortar, and the Englishmen dwelling in the country 
" round use to burn them to lime after the Dutch manner. 

"After that there follows quite another kind of thing, in all 
" 28 feet thick, consisting of an endless number of streaks 
"and horizontal beds, partly of pebbles and sand together, 
" and partly of a grey sandy clay, partly of a dark kind of 
" earth, mork jordarc, and so on 28 o 

" After that, a streaky clay, en randig lera, down to the 
'• base and the water, in all 25 feet high, which is like a 
" network of streaky stuff, distinguished by different 
'•colours and streaks, has the outward appearance of a 
'dark-brown shale. Skifverberg, contained in two or 
•• three horizontal bands. S-l'eck, of 22\ feet thickness, and 
'• extends right through the hill here and there sticking out 
"like great flat stones, Steeil-hallar." Hjarne, p. 340. [J. L.] 

* Wallerius, Johann Gottschalk, Mineralogia, Eller Mineral Riket in- 
delt och beskrifvit af I. G. W. Stockholm, 1747. 8vo. This was the first 
of a long series of " Mineralogies." [J. L.] 



76 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

but they have at first to be prepared for that purpose for 
a long time, which is done in this way, that they are 
spread out over a certain shallow pit or "pan," fait, 
to lie out in the open air, so that the sun may get to 
work freely upon them. Herr Seel told me that this 
place where it is so prepared, has in the first place been 
fitted for it in this way : they had dug so far into the 
ground till they came to a solid clay that was able to 
resist the percolation of the Vitriol-lye, for a looser kind 
of earth would absorb the most of the Vitriol-lye, but 
still as they could not trust to that they had laid the 
bottom with chalk for a thickness of 4 to 6 feet, which 
had become hard packed together : At all sides of this 
pit or pan, the banks or walls were similarly made of 
chalk, to a thickness of 4 to 6 feet ; but to be still more 
sure that the Vitriol-juice could not escape, tranga sig 
b&rt, either through the bottom or the sides of the pit, 
dammen, both the bottom and the sides were rendered 
with a plaster of gypsum called Terras, which has the 
property that it afterwards hardens in water like stone. 
Thus the bottom and sides were so prepared that 
one could rest assured that the Vitriol-juice or lye, 
Vitriolslakan eller luten, could not pass through 
them. 

The bottom of this pit was not flat or a planum, but 
was shaped like a number of ridges, or roofs of barns or 
houses, side by side, in the lowest parts of which there 
were always laid gutters of lead, rannor af bly, along 
which the lye or juice afterwards came to run to the 
house where the pans were in which the Vitriol was 
boiled, kokades. On this bottom [T. I. p. 465] so 
prepared the aforenamed Marcasite, Svafvel-kes, was 
laid, everywhere a foot thick, when it was left to lie 
under the open sky, that the sun, rain, and air got to 
play freely on it. When the sun has been shining for a 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 77 

long time upon it, this Marcasite effloresces to a mould, 
vittras sonder til en mull, and that very gradually, 
so that the surface of it first begins to effloresce, vittra 
sonder, and afterwards the remainder. It has to lie 
here 6, 7, 8, 10, or even 12 months sometimes, before it 
has crumbled to mould. When the sun has worked 
some time on it, it becomes quite white and mealy on 
the outside, and if one sets the tongue on this meal it 
tastes exactly like Vitriol. When the rain afterwards 
falls on this stone, the mealy part and all that has 
become resolved into salt, is washed away from it, and 
carried down to the bottom of this dug place, grafda 
platsen, when it runs through the canals that are there 
to the house where the Vitriol is boiled, where it is col- 
lected in a large Cistern. Outside the aforenamed dug 
pit, grafde dam, where the stone is laid out, there 
stand, let down here and there, bottomless tuns, bot- 
tenlosa tunnor, in which the gutters or pipes which 
lead the water to the Cistern can be seen down at the 
bottom. One sees in them how the Vitriol-lye runs ; for 
the gutter which comes from the dug pit, ends on one side 
of the tun, tunnan, and on the opposite side commences 
the pipe, pipan, which leads the water to the above- 
named cistern. These tuns are set here for this reason, 
that it can be seen in them whether any of the gutters 
or pipes have become stopped up, and which pipe it is, 
so that the same may be set to rights. 

They are very careful here that some rain should fall 
on this Marcasite, Svafvel-kesen, after the sun has 
shone upon it for some days. For example, six days' 
[T. I. p. 466] sunshine and the seventh rain were here a 
beautiful thing ; for then the Marcasite would soonest 
effloresce, vittra sonder, and yield the most vitriol-lye ; 
but as such a succession of weather does not always 
happen, the owner has erected at two places in the 



78 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

square in which the Marcasite is spread out, syringes, 
sprutor, to which the water is led through leaden pipes 
underground. To get the water there, there is a pump- 
ing-machine a little way off, which is driven by horses, so 
that the water is pumped to these syringes by means of 
three pumps. They can thus, by means of a small long 
pipe of copper, which is screwed on to the syringe, and 
can be turned round to all sides, spread the water on all 
sides over the iron pyrites or Marcasite here spread out, 
and thus to a certain extent perform the same service as 
the rain, to wash down the effloresced vitriol-meal or salt. 
This vitriol-works lies close to the river Thames, so that 
one has the advantage of seeing all the ships that pass 
up and down the river. 

From the Thames there goes an arm up close by these 
vitriol works ; therefore, when the Thames rises at high 
water, as much of the flood water is collected in the dug 
channels as is wanted, and is afterwards penned in by a 
sluice-gate, dam-bord, when it is ebb in the river 
Thames, or the water falls very low. All the water 
which falls into the effloresced Marcasite, Svafvel- 
kesen, either from rain or from the syringes, filters 
through the same down to the bottom, after it has first 
dissolved, lost up, all the vitriol-salt which it has met 
with, and carries it with it in the above named way 
through the gutters or pipes to the cistern in the house 
where the Vitriol is boiled. 

From this cistern it is pumped by hand up to the pan 
in which it is boiled to Vitriol. This pan, panna, is of 
lead, very large, quadrilateral, lies with [T. I. p. 467] its 
bottom on closely-laid iron bars, and a fire is lighted 
under it in two ovens close beside each other, entirely 
supplied with coal. 

If they notice that the heat becomes too strong under 
the pan, they can diminish it by this means — that on the 






LONDON AND SUBURBS. 79 

inner side of the oven there go up two or three flues, 
korstens-plpor, in which there are dampers, spjall. 
When the damper or valve is opened, the flame and heat 
have freedom to ascend through it, and thus the heat 
under the pan diminishes, and consequently the degree of 
boiling ; but when the spjall is shut, the heat is in- 
creased. The boiling lasts about five, six, or seven days 
before the lye becomes so thick that it is fit to make 
vitriol of, which can be proved by means of a special 
glass globe with holes in it, which they lay in some of the 
lye, lut, which they have taken up. By means of this 
hydrometer it is seen how thick the water or lye, vatnet 
eller luten, is in this boiling-pan. At last, when it is 
full-boiled, it is tapped off into three large oblong cisterns 
of lead which stand a little way from the pan, where it is 
left to stand and cool, when the Vitriol settles on the 
bottom and sides of these cisterns. The lye which will not 
give any more vitriol -crystals is poured back into the 
pan ; but the Vitriol that has shot out into crystals is 
collected. 

In the boiling, it is necessary to be particularly careful 
that the pan is almost constantly full, which is done by 
pumping more lye out of the cistern into the pan than is 
boiled in it, because the pan would otherwise melt. Very 
much and heavy rain on the outspread Marcasite is in- 
jurious, because the lye which then filters down is so 
weak that it is not much stronger than mere water, and 
consequently it requires a great deal of fire, long boiling, 
and more labour before the Vitriol is produced from it. 
The owner said he bought every year £roo to £150 worth 
of this iron-pyrites or Marcasite. As the channels from 
the Thames [T. I. p. 468] go right into the works, he 
can lay boats and small barges close alongside, and un- 
load pyrites and coal. He did not employ much more 
than two or three persons in the whole factory. 



8o KALM'S ENGLAND. 

r T. I. p. 438.] The 27th May, 1748. 

Angs-bargningen.* Carrying the meadows, or 
Haymaking. 

The meadows were now everywhere being mown and 
carried, which lay on the slopes just outside London. 
Some of them were already mown, and the hay carried, 
inbargadt. The whole process was carried out almost 
in the same way as with us. The grass was mown with the 
scythe, and left to lie in the order in which the mowers, 
slatter-karlen, laid it, till it had become somewhat dry 
on the upper side. After it was raked out, though 
seldom with rakes, rafsor, but with the here universally 
used iron-forks, jarn-gaflBLar, with a long wooden handle, 
et langt traskaft, it was so left to dry. After- 
wards it was turned once or more with the iron-forks, 
then raked together into rows, i Strang, with ordinary 
rakes. After that it was cast together with the often- 
mentioned pitchforks into [T. I. p. 439] large cocks 
valmar, getting on for 8 feet high. Afterwards it was 
laid on large waggons, and carried home. It was very 
rare here to see any women at the work in the meadows, 
but the carrying of the meadows was performed mostly 
by men only. It is incredible what an abundance of grass 
was now found on those meadows, especially on those 
which lay on the north side of the town. It nearly 

* " Angs-bargningen " and "Angsbruket i Middlesex." 
In the View of the Agriculture of Middlesex, drawn up for the Board of 
Agriculture: By John Middleton, 1798. London, 8vo. the distribution of 
" Meadow and Pasture " in Middlesex is shown by a green colour on the 
valuablemap at the beginning. It quite substantiates A 'aim's description, though 
50 years had passed away. The subject of " Meadows and Pastures " forms 
8ec. I., p. 219-225 of " Chap. VIII., GRASS," pp. 219-253. The subject of 
" Haymaking " or " AngS-bargningen " is Sec. III., pp. 237-251 ; that 
of "Sown-Grasses " so exhaustively treated by Kalm forming Sec. II., pp. 
226-236. [J. L.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 8 1 

everywhere stood up to my waist, when I went in the 
meadows, and was so thick that there could never be any 
thicker. Bromus, 52 [" var. secalini "], Alopecurus, 
52 [A. pratensis], Poa 78 [P. Pratensis], which had now 
begun to stick themselves up in abundance, made at this 
time all the beautiful grass-growth that was found here. 
The meadows were very even and smooth, jamna OCh 
slata, with not a single hillock, tufva, on them. The 
grass was cut off as near the ground as the scythe could 
go, so that there were scarcely 2J inches of stub, stubbe, 
left remaining. When the grass was newly mown, the stub 
near the ground was nearly white, which was caused by 
the grass growing so very thick. Also the lower part of 
the new-mown hay was quite white for the same reason. 
On account of the luxuriant and thick grass-growth the 
mower could not progress at each stroke of the scythe, 
lie-tag, farther than a short 6 inches, for the grass was 
so thick that he was not able to drive his strokes farther 
in, at han ej orkade taga djupare in i sander. 
It has been often mentioned above that all these meadows 
are manured once a year with the choicest manure. 

[T. I. p. 468.] The 2\th June, 1748. 

AngS-bruket i Middlesex. Use of the Meadows in 
Middlesex. 

Mr. P. Collinson related to me an account of the trade 
fod-krok, and livelihood, narings-medel, which the 
farmers, inhabitants of Middlesex, practise, specially on 
the side on which Hampstead lies, and beyond or north 
of that. It consists in this, that the farmers or 
Landtmannerna there lay out all the ground and land 
which they have, only and solely as meadow, without 
themselves having any ploughed land, or feeding any 
cattle, excepting some few horses, which they require for 



82 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

cultivating the meadows. The meadow is here all their 
food and sustenance. It seems to be wonderful that it 
can suffice for that, especially as the farmers in this dis- 
trict pay a higher rent yearly than others, but still it is 
so. As they live near London they buy and carry home 
from thence all their manure, which is collected in the 
streets, and afterwards carried outside the town and laid 
in great heaps. No farmer who sends in a load of hay to 
be sold, allows his wagon to go back empty from the 
town, but it is there filled with the above-named manure 
only, which after it has lain its proper time by the meadow 
and fermented into one mass, brunnit ihop, is spread 
out in the autumn over the grass-sward in the meadows. 
In January, February, or March, the cattle are taken out 
of the meadows, and do not get to go on them any longer, 
after which the grass is left freedom to grow. In this 
state it continues so that the farmer, at the beginning of 
May goes for the first time on to it with the scythe, lian, 
and mows it. A farmer [T. I. p. 469] or Landtman on 
this side has commonly no more servants than one single 
man, drang. Many might then think, How will he with 
so little help be able to cut and carry the hay from his 
many and scattered large meadows ? The answer to this 
is that he wins, bargar, all his meadows in the summer 
with day labourers, dags-verks-folk. In the beginning 
of May there come from Ireland over to England a very 
large number of Irishmen, who, like our Dalecarlians, 
Dalkarlar, in Sweden, go and hire themselves out every- 
where to the farmers. The whole of this part of England 
which lies immediately north and east of London, carries 
on nearly all its hay-making and harvest work with only 
this people, who come over at the beginning of May, and 
remain there the whole summer, leaving their own dwel- 
lings at home in Ireland to the care of their wives and 
children ; but towards autumn, after the seedtime and 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 83 

harvest are past, they return home with the money 
which they have been able to earn. 

In the same way as the Irishmen seek their food and 
income on this side in the summer, so it is the case with 
those from Whales or Wallis that they earn their money 
also on this side of England in Kent, for towards the 
haymaking season, hd-bargnings-tiden, the folk come 
from thence in very large numbers down to the country 
parts of Kent to work for wages ; but with this difference 
that instead of only men coming as from Ireland, there 
come mostly only women and girls, bara qvin folk, 
hustrur, och pigor, from Wales, all well, cleanly, and 
very neatly clad. These perform nearly all the summer 
cropping in Kent, both of hay and grain. They also 
take down and pluck off the hops. They remake the 
hop gardens. They [T. I. p. 470] gather the various 
kinds of beautiful fruits which Kent produces. But I 
will return to the farmers in Middlesex, and their 
meadow cultivation, angs-skotsel. It is there the afore- 
named Irishmen, whom they employ in summer to mow 
and carry all their hay. As soon as the meadow has thus 
been mown in the month of May, and the hay stacked, 
no cattle are turned into the meadows, but the grass 
then at once has freedom to begin to shoot and grow, in 
which it makes such progress that if the weather is good 
they often get to mow them for the second time by the 
beginning of July. If it happens, then, that they have 
finished the aftermath or second mowing early, even 
then no cattle are slipped into the meadows to bait, but 
the grass is again left freedom to grow, by which they 
get to mow the meadows for the third time in September. 
But if the spring is late, as it was this year [1748] so that 
they cannot finish the first mowing before the close of 
May or the beginning of June, and consequently the 
second not before the second half of July, then they do 



84 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

not in such a year wait for the third mowing, but as 
soon as the meadows have been carried, and the hay 
either taken into London or stacked at home, the cattle 
are slipped into them to get their subsistence from the 
grass-stub on the meadows. As they have few animals 
themselves, they either hire out these meadows which 
have been mown to butchers in London, who pay them 
handsomely by the week for each animal, be it ox or 
sheep, which has freedom to go there to bait, i bet, or, 
as they mostly do, they buy up at the markets a number 
of thin oxen or sheep, which they can commonly get for 
a moderate price. These they drive on to their 
meadows, where they have to go and become fat, till 
towards January or February, the time of year, namely, 
[T. I. p. 471] in which the places lying farther from 
London could not supply it with fat cattle ready to 
slaughter, and the cattle or beasts of slaughter are con- 
sequently dearest ; then these farmers sell them to the 
butchers with considerable profit. A great number of 
establishments in London keep their own horses, but as 
they have no need of them in the winter they keep them 
at some of these farmers, and pay three or four shillings 
a week for each horse, which is a long way cheaper for 
them than if they were to buy hay and keep them in 
London in the stable. As there is an untold number of 
horses kept in the stable, it is not wonderful that hay is 
very dear there, especially at some times of the year, of 
which these farmers situated near to London are well 
able and know how to avail themselves. And so it may 
from this be easily understood to what extent, huru 
vida, the meadows alone are sufficient to earn for them 
and their households, food, clothes, and everything that 
they require, and to give them power to pay their heavy 
rents without loss. 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 8 5 

The 25th June, 1748. 
Kallare och rum under gator. Cellars and 
rooms under streets. 

Notwithstanding the size of London, still they are 
careful that no spot of ground shall be left useless 
and waste. In many places there are passages from 
houses down under the street to the cellars and other 
rooms which have been built under the street. In one 
place and another they had dug up one half of a street, and 
were then engaged either in walling round an old cellar 
or in building an entirely new one. Under several of the 
squares there were also built cellars or other rooms. 

[T. I. p. 472.] 

Sma gardar vid hvart hus. Small yards to each 
house. 

At nearly every house in the town there was either in 
front towards the street, or inside the house and building, 
or also in both places, a little yard. They had commonly 
planted in these yards and round about them, partly in 
the earth and ground itself, partly in pots and boxes, 
several of the trees, plants, and flowers which could stand 
the ccal-smoke in London. They thus sought to have 
some of the pleasant enjoyments of a country life in the 
midst of the hubbub of the town. 

The 26th June, 1748. 

Huru Sallad tilredes. Bow Salad is prepared. 

Englishmen commonly prepare their salad thus : They 
take Lactuca, lettuce, and throw away the outer coarser 
leaves, because they are bitter, baska. Likewise the 
coarsest of the stalks are rejected. These lettuce-leaves 
are cut to pieces very coarsely ; afterwards, a little fine 
salt is taken, two or three knife-points' full, more or less, 



86 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

according to the quantity of salad one has. This is laid 
on a plate, talrik, on which vinegar is poured, and is 
well stirred about. After that, olive-oil, bomolja, is 
poured on to it, after which the salt, vinegar, and olive- 
oil are mixed well together. This is afterwards poured 
on to the cut-up lettuce-leaves, which one puts into a dish, 
and so well mixed with one another, when it is ready. 
I never saw sugar used here with salad. Green cucum- 
bers are prepared in the same way for salad, after they 
have first been cut across into thin slices, tunna skif- 
vor. Some mix the slices of cucumber with the lettuce- 
leaves, and afterwards pour the prepared oil, vinegar, and 
salt on to the mixture ; but generally each is prepared by 
itself for [T. I. p. 473] the reason that all persons cannot 
bear to eat of all the kinds, but have only a relish for one 
of them. Some mix together cucumber slices, lettuce- 
leaves, mint, salvia, krass, water-cress, &c, cut them 
into large pieces, and prepare salad of them in the 
manner described above. 

The 2jth June, 1748. 
Aim. The Elm. There is scarcely any tree which 
is so much planted in England as the elm-tree ; so that 
it can, in a certain way, be called the Englishmen's 
favorite tree.* I saw great numbers of them in London, 
and just outside the town. Nearly all the squares in 
London were planted round with it. The Allees in St. 
James's Park, outside the Royal Palace, were only and 
solely of this tree, excepting that by the water there were 
willows, pilar. So also around Moorfield. Likewise 
where the Danish Church stands. This and the willow 
were, in short, the only trees which were planted along 
the sides of the streets. In the villages outside London 

* This is only true of the London clay and of the south. The oak mono- 
polised the weald clay which Wm. Smith called the oak-tree clay. [J. L.] 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 8'/ 

this tree had been planted on both sides of the road, 
where it made a beautiful shade and a pretty appearance 
with its widely-spreading branches. Outside most of the 
gentlemen's houses there were allees or clumps, lunder, 
of elms. Mr. P. Collinson had, in his beautiful garden 
at Peckham, so clipped one of these trees that it, with 
its twigs, formed the roof of one of his summer-houses 
which stood on one side of the garden, and opposite, on 
the other side of the garden, was an Esculus, Linn., or 
Castanea Equina, C.B., Horse-chestnut, dipt in the same 
way ; so that its branches spread themselves out on one 
side, and formed a roof and shelter over the seat or bench 
which was erected beneath it. In My Lord Tilney's 
garden, which is described under Woodford, there were 
high and long allees, made only and solely [T. I. p. 474] 
of elm. They had there got to grow to some height. 
Afterwards they had bent the tops towards one another, 
and allowed them to shoot out branches, where they now 
made a tolerably thick roof, so that when one stood at 
one end and looked along this allee, it seemed as though 
it were arched or vaulted with green trees. On many 
estates these elms were likewise left to shoot out branches 
on the inner side of the allee, through which they formed 
a thick and leafy roof over the allee, so that it was very 
lovely on summer days to walk along these allees, where 
it was always shady and refreshing. When I went down 
to Gravesend, in Kent, and in the part of Essex that lay 
opposite to Gravesend, I found no tree, of which there 
were so many planted by the streets and outside the 
houses, in the towns, villages, and farms, and of which 
there was such an abundance in the hedges around the 
fields as of this. The reason why they in particular 
choose this tree before others is said to be that it gives 
the best shade, endures the coal smoke very well, stands 
for a long time green, and keeps its leaves till the 



88 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

autumn, when others are pale and shed them, besides its 
manifold usefulness for all kinds of carpenter's and 
turner's work, til allehanda snickare-och svarfvare 
arbeten. 

The zSth June, 1748. 

Brdd. The bread which here in England was every- 
where and exclusively used, at least where I travelled, 
was large loaves, limpor, baked of wheat-flour, hvete- 
mjol. Other bread is next to never eaten. Most 
Englishmen had scarcely heard tell of rye-bread, hort 
talas om rag-brod ; few had seen it, and still fewer 
were those who had eaten it. Many also did not [T. I. 
P* 475] know, that anyone was in the habit of baking 
bread of rye, but they thought that it was only used as 
food for cattle. This ought all to be understood of those 
who lived in London and the provinces immediately 
round ; for several told me that in the north of England 
it is common enough to bake bread of rye-meal. Like- 
wise that there are large tracts in the north where most 
of the people mostly live on Haver-bread, Hafre-br6d, 
[oatmeal cakes.*] In London they sometimes, at break- 
fast, til-frukost, eat with butter, while they drink tea, a 
kind of thin, small, round cakes, which are snow-white, 
taste very nice, and are said to be made of the finest 
Haver-meal. But still wheat-loaves are the principal 
sort. 

[T. I. p. 186.] The 25th March, 1748. 

A great Fire in London. 

Today there happened the great conflagration in 
London in which over 100 houses near the Royal Ex- 
change were burned down. It was generally considered 
that there had not been so large a fire in London since 

* See Lucas' Studies in Nidderdale IV., 1872, 8vo. 



LONDON AND SUBURBS. 89 

the great fire in 1666. As regards the fire which happened 
to-day, it was remarkable that notwithstanding its size, 
there were nevertheless very many in London, both of 
my acquaintance and others, who never once knew about 
any fire till late in the evening after it was all extinguished, 
or they first got to know about it the following day from 
the newspapers, Avisor, which come out daily in London ; 
which was partly occasioned by the enormous size of 
London, and partly by the thick and voluminous smoke, 
which, especially at this time of year, floats over the 
town. On our way we did not see any smoke from this 
fire, nor did we know to look out for it. 







CHELSEA. 



[T. I. p. 386.] 27i* 5^ Af«y, 1748. 

Tra-och koks-krydd gardar. Orchards and 

vegetable market-gardens. 

On all sides round about Chelsea there is scarcely 
seen anything else than either orchards or vegetable 
market-gardens, and beautiful houses as it were scattered 
amongst them. The orchards, Tra-gardarna, were 
full of all kinds of fruit trees, such as apple, pear, plum, 
cherry-trees, &c, which were now nearly all at their best 
in full flower. I saw here in many places large fields 
which were nothing but Tra-scholor, all planted full of 
all kinds of small trees for sale. There were here many 
gardeners, Tragards-mastare, whose only means of 
living consisted entirely of these Tra-scholor, " tree 
schools," or as they are here called nurseries. This was 
in itself a very useful thing, for when a gentleman or any 
one else had bought an estate, or [T. 1. p. 387] wished 
to form a new garden, he was not obliged to wait for 
several years before he could rear from seed, small trees 
which he could plant out, but he could at once buy all 
such of various sizes, well cultivated and clipped, from 
the aforenamed nurserymen, so that he could in one year, 
if he was otherwise able to afford it, om han annors 
hade rad dertil, plant as many trees in his garden as 
he wished and required, and of whatever kind he pre- 
ferred. In the same way, if any old trees went off by 
90 




Kabrcs ErtgLandJ 






wk 













wmp Chel sea, Ranelagh. Hous e ; etc 



CHELSEA. 9 r 

any chance, he could always in the above named way 
easily get others ; and because there were here so many 
who drove this trade, so it was also easy to get such 
young trees for a moderate price. The same thing is true 
of market garden produce. Some nurserymen or market 
gardeners lay themselves out for all kind of market- 
garden produce, to keep for sale, others trouble them- 
selves only about some few, which they sow in large 
quantities, and cultivate well. As we to-day wandered 
out about Chelsea, we saw whole tracts, like very large 
arable fields, sown only with beans, cabbages, and aspa- 
ragus. The beans were all of the kind which are here 
called Broad Windsor Beans. They were all sown in 
rows, in broadland. The breadth between each row was 
21 inches, and often only i foot between the rows ; and 
the distance between the bean plants in each row, 9 inches 
to 1 foot. They were now everywhere in flower. A boy 
went with a little iron hoe, jam hacka, and cleared away 
the weeds between the rows, of which weeds Hvit- 
roten [T. repens], was the principal and most. In some 
places they had planted several kinds of cabbages be- 
tween the rows. In other places there were long beds 
3 feet to 4 feet broad, all sown with asparagus. There I 
noticed a new contrivance [T. I. P. 388], which I had not 
seen before, viz., how they collected a number of necks of 
broken bottles. Such a bottle neck was set on each aspa- 
ragus plant, Sparis Stand, so that the asparagus stood 
and grew up through the neck. The end of the neck was 
open so that the air had free access to the asparagus. 
When the sun shone on these glass necks, the glass per- 
force became very hot, through which the temperature 
inside the glass or neck was considerably increased, in 
consequence of which the asparagus came to push up all 
the quicker, and made haste to grow. All the asparagus 
plants which were inside these bottle necks were about 



92 KALM S ENGLAND. 

the thickness of a little finger and were now, as they 
were at their best, about to be cut. Thus they knew here 
in England how to make use of nearly everything, often 
of such things as are regarded by us as useless. It has 
been shown before (p. 382 orig.), how broken bottles 
and bits of glass can be turned to account, and here it is 
shown that they also know how to make use of old 
broken bottle necks. 

[T. I. p. 398."] The 12th May, 1748. 

Pron ligga lange oskadde i jorden. 

Seeds lie long unscathed in the Earth. 

Mr. Miller told me, that in a place where Rhabar- 
barum verum had stood for ten years he had this season 
had it moved from thence to another place where no 
plant of it had grown for ten years ; but now this year 
where he had had the earth dug up at this place, a new 
plant had come up from the seeds which had lain there 
in the earth for so many years, which was now in full 
flower. Mr. Miller said he had had the same experience 
with a Fumaria (Fumitory) whose seeds had lain fourteen 
years in the ground before they had come up. In the 
case of the Fumaria Mr. Miller mentioned this, that 
Lobel had made another new species out of Fumaria 
bulbosa, and had called one of them F.bulbosa viridi flore, 
which however is only a variety, for if one takes Fumaria 
bulbosa and buries its bulbs very deep down in the 
ground, yet so that it can come up, all the flowers come 
green as Lobel has described it ; but if these bulbs are 
laid nearer up to the surface of the ground it is then an 
ordinary Fumaria bulbosa. 

Ugnar i Orangerier. Stoves in Orangeries. 
The stoves in the Orangeries in Chelsea Apothecaries 



Garden are all arranged in the way which Mr. Miller 
describes in his Gardeners 1 Dictionary, under the word 
Stoves, viz. : that the smoke comes to pass through 
several bends backwards and forwards in one of the long 
walls of the orangery. In the largest orangery in Chelsea 
garden the smoke makes six bends, before it escapes. 
Mr. Miller said that he had at first [T. I. p. 399] had 
them made like channels under the floor at the sides of 
the house, but he had since altered this in the above 
named way, because he had not found that a good plan. 
For from the great heat, the tan, garfvare Barken, 
that lay nearest these flues, Canaler, grew so hot, that 
it became quite dry, and the danger was that it would 
take fire. He knew two, if not more, examples in which 
orangeries here in England had been burnt by the tan 
becoming so hot that it took fire. Coal was burned in 
the ovens here in the winter, commonly once in the twenty- 
four hours, viz. : every evening, but if the day is cloudy 
a small fire is also lighted in the morning. Mr. Miller 
considered coal the best thing to use for this purpose 
because they burn so evenly. Peats (Torf) he considered 
to be equally good with coal in this respect ; but they have 
the disadvantage that the smell of them passes through the 
wall into the house, so that it smells strong in the 
orangery, which does not happen with Coals. Mr. Miller 
said that he had at first used Peat, but left it off for the 
reason first named. Wood, he believed not to be so good 
for fuel as coal and peat, because it heats too quickly and 
strongly. The tan which had lain for a time in the 
orangery around the pots, krukorna, was afterwards 
used in the garden as ordinary manure. On the mould 
in the pots in the orangery nothing was laid, neither 
sawdust nor anything else. In Moscow I have seen saw- 
dust laid on the mould in the pots in orangeries, to 
keep them moist longer. 



94 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

The 13th May, 1748. 

To-day the Session of Parliament was closed for this 
season, when King George II., at 2 o'clock in the after- 
noon [T. I. p. 400], went up to Parliament to deliver 
part of the Articles of Peace [Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle] 
and to take leave of the House, because His Majesty was 
intending to cross to Holland the same or the following 
day, and then to go on to his hereditary land in Hanover. 
I had one of the best opportunities there could be to see 
him both long and well because I stood in the front row 
both when he went in and came out of Parliament, just 
where he alighted from his carriage. When he had got 
out of Parliament and had sat down in his carriage he 
remained a short time before he drove away from the 
Houses of Parliament, talking to the Duke of Richmond, 
who afterwards accompanied him in the carriage. 
Besides, when he went in to the Parliament House and 
also when he came out and entered his carriage the 
crowd raised a cry or shout of joy. Some among them 
cried out "God bless the King" — that is, Gud valsigne 
Konungen. 

Ranelagh House. — In the evening I visited Ranelagh 
House, which is a little out of Chelsea on the London 
side, where the youth of both sexes, and the elder people 
go to divert themselves. Ranelagh House is reckoned 
one of the largest halls in Europe. It is built nearly round, 
and has only a pillar in the middle. Here, in the summer 
there is Instrumental and Vocal Music almost every evening, 
and now and then in the mornings. Those who wish to 
go in there must pay a shilling. Round about the house 
is a large garden with many allees planted with high 
hedges on both sides. On all sides within the house 
there are built by the wall, as it were, small [T. I. p. 401] 
Contoirs, which were quite open to the hall itself. 

In the middle of this division, afstangningen, 



CHELSEA. 95 

is a table with benches on both sides. Any one 
who pleases can sit here and be served with all 
kinds of food and drink, which is here imme- 
diately to hand, som har ar strax til hands. Men 
and women find nothing else to do here but to walk 
about in this large hall and listen to the music, or 
to sit and faire bonne chere, plaga sig, in the small rooms, 
or also to divert themselves in the garden, &c. Such- 
like pleasure-houses, lust-hus, are found in many places, 
both in and outside of London, where time is killed 
fornotes, in such a way, especially in the afternoons 
and evenings. In the Town there are held Comedies 
Oratorios,. Instrumental Concerts, Musique, Rope- 
dancing, Lindansare, &c. Besides all kinds of pleasure- 
houses, and according to the time of year, they also 
avail themselves of one or other of these. If these 
pleasures were only employed for this purpose, that after 
one had tired himself out with his duties or business 
during the day he took his pleasure here once a week in 
the afternoon to freshen up his spirits, then they would 
be of great service ; but to devote every day to this, 
seems, sauf meilleur avis, oforgripeligen, to be nothing 
else than to waste their youth and lead them to dissi- 
pation, idleness, and libertinage. Everything has its 
measure, Alt har sitt matt. Here they are accustomed 
to vanity, ostentation, inutilite, bagatelles, fafanga, to 
waste precious time, to fall by degrees into weakness 
and indolence and to fight shy of work, sky for arbete. 
Married ladies and Mistresses of Establishments, and the 
young girls become in many ways altered and ruined, 
bart skamde, and lose all pleasure in household duties. 

Den 14 Maji, 1748. 
Ron vid Larix. 
Mr. Miller told us that the Duke of Bedford had had 



96 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

a number of Larices, C.B. [European] Larches planted in 
his garden, some of which had come to be planted in very 
good garden soil, and [T. I. p. 402] others again had to be 
content with only a very meagre soil. When they after- 
wards began to grow, those in the meagre soil had 
commonly made double as long shoots as those in the 
good garden mould, tragards jorden, and looked very 
lively, while on the other hand, the former, which stood 
in a good soil looked quite drooping, matta, as though 
they where obliged reluctantly to force themselves to 
grow. The wonder -worthy laws of the Allwise Creator 
in respect of plants are proved by this, that the meagre 
and poor earth also has its special trees and plants, 
which flourish well in it, but thrive badly, vantrifras, 
in what we humanly speaking, call a better soil. He 
said he had found the same with the Cedar of Mount 
Lebanon, but as I note that he has entered this experience 
in his work The Gardeners' Dictionary, I will not now say 
any more about it, but refer the reader to that work. 

Chelsea ar en liten Porstad eller By. 

Chelsea is a little suburb or village, situated a couple 
of miles from London towards the west. The river 
Thames runs close past Chelsea, stryker tatt forbi C, 
on the S.E. and S. sides, and on the other sides there is 
nothing else besides nurseries and market-gardens, of 
which there are here a frightful number. The place re- 
sembles a town, has a church, beautiful streets, well- 
built and handsome houses all of brick, three or four 
stories high. I cannot "just" understand what some of 
those who dwell here live upon. Some have small haber- 
dashers shops, but that is not saying much. Publi- 
cans, innkeepers, coffee-house keepers, brewers, bakers, 
butchers, and such like, can here make a good living ; be- 
cause a multitude of people from London in fine weather, 



CHELSEA. 97 

vackert vader, * in the summer come out here, to enjoy 
themselves, when such people well know [T. I. p. 403] 
how to charge for what they sell. The principal livelihood 
of the others seem to be from houses and rooms, which 
they let to gentlemen, who in summer now and again, 
especially on Saturdays, Sundays, and part of Monday, 
come out here from London to stay, and take the fresh 
air. Rooms are here considerably dearer than in London 
itself, which is said to be due to this, that they have 
heavy taxes, "lltlagor, and that they get no one in the 
winter time to lodge there, wherefore they are obliged 
in the summer time, as it were, to take for both at once 
to compensate for the loss. 

Several houses in this place belong to gentlemen who 
live and reside in London, and only now and then journey 
out to Chelsea ; but, in short, a third of the houses are said 
to belong to Sir Hans Shane, who bought them many 
years ago, and now lets them to different people. 

[T. I. p. 408.] The iSth May, 1748. 
Sir Hans Shane. 

In the morning I went to Chelsea, and spent part of 
the morning in Chelsea Apothecaries Garden. After- 
wards I accompanied Mr. Miller to Sir Hans Sloane to 
pay my respects to him. He lay to-day in bed, and 
looked a picture of old age, and was reported to be now 
in his 94th year. Mr. Miller gave him to understand, 
gaf honom vid handen, the reason of my journey, that 
I was intending to visit the places in North America 
where no Botanist had been before, there to gather and 
describe all the plants and trees I should come upon, 



* From Copenhagen to Gottenburg, you have a delightful sail, — if in 
11 vackert vader," as the Swedes say, &c. Sylvanus, Sweden and Gottland, 1847, 
8vo. p. 44. [J. L.] 

H 



98 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

and make all kinds of observations on Natural History 
and Natural Science Natur-Kunnogheten &c, which 
Sir Hans Sloane approved of very highly, and believed 
that I should find there a number of rare things. Sir 
Hans Sloane had many years before given up all his public 
engagements [T. I. p. 409] and resigned himself now 
for the remainder of his life to live in rest and peace 
at Chelsea on his estate. He was now rather deaf, so 
that we were obliged to shout loud for him to hear it. 
On the tongue he had a swelling, so that he spoke 
indistinctly enough and very slowly. Sometimes a long 
time passed by before he got out a word. 

[T. I. p. 388]. The 6th May, 1748. 

Sir Hans Shane's Frus Graf. Lady Sloane's grave. 

Sir Hans Sloane had long been a widower. During 
his residence in Jamaica he had married a very rich 
widow, which placed him in a position to fulfil his bent 
for Natural History, and enabled him to buy the greater 
part of the Natural History Collection he now owns. Ever 
since he about eight years ago ceased to be President of 
the Royal Society [1740] [T. I. p. 389] he has lived 
continually here in Chelsea on his estate free from all 
care. One and all looked upon this man with a par- 
ticular respect, because he was the oldest of all the 
learned men now living in Europe, whose names on 
account of their writings and learning, are widely known. 
We find in the Philosophical Letters of that learned man, 
John Ray, several letters which Sir Hans Sloane had 
written as long ago as the year 1684, together with 
several of John Ray's answers to them, from which ap- 
pears what a great insight Sir Hans Sloane had even at 
that time [aged 29] into all branches of natural science, 
not to mention the other sciences. 



CHELSEA. 99 

His wife, whom we have just mentioned, and with 
whom he had spent the greater part of his life, lay buried 
in the churchyard here in Chelsea, where Sir Hans 
Sloane had erected a handsome monument of hewn stone 
over the grave, which was on the S.E. side of the church 
against the wall. Round about this carved grave was an 
iron railing, jarn-galler. On the east and west sides 
were Sir Hans Sloane's arms, vapen. On the south 
side there was nothing written, but the hewn stones were 
there quite smooth. Doubtless Sir Hans Sloane wished 
to leave others freedom to engrave there his In Memoriam 
and laudatory Epitaph, aminnelse OCh laford, after 
his dust once comes to be preserved beneath it together 
with that of his wife. [Sir Hans Sloane died Jan. nth, 
1753, nearly five years after Kalm's visit, and just before 
this Tome was published.] 

On the north side of this monument there were these 
words, quite free from show and flatUrie : 

" Here lyeth the body 
Of Dame Elizabeth Sloane, 
Wife of Sr. Hans Sloane, Baronet. 
Who departed this life 
The 27th of September, 1724, 
Aged 67."" 
[T. I. p. 390.] 

* This Epitaph having perished with the slab on which it was written 
has disappeared and has been replaced by another on a substituted slab. 
" Here lies interred 
Elizabeth Lady Sloane, 
Wife of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., 
Who departed this life 
In the year of our Lord, 1 724, 
And the 67th of her age." Copied April 14, 1888. 
Thus not only the original Epitaph, but the date of her death, and her 
age, had been forgotten, fj. L.] 

H 2 



100 KALM S ENGLAND. 

SIR HANS SLOANE'S MUSEUM. 

Kalm visited this on the 28th April and the 26th May. 
The April account, pp. 376-7, is an abstract of the May 
account which fills 10 pp. 427-38. I shall give the April 
account as it stands with selections from the May. [J. L.] 

[T. I. p. 376.] The 28th April, 1748. 

Sir Hans Shane's Natural Samling. 

In the morning I went in company with Mr. Warner, 
Captain Shierman, and some other English gentlemen 
up to Chelsea where we spent some time in looking at 
Chelsea Garden, but afterwards went to see Sir Hans 
Sloane's collections, in all three Natural Kingdoms, 
Antiquities, Anatomy, and many Curiosities. 

We saw here a great collection of all kinds of stones, 
Stenar, partly polished, slipade, partly such as still 
lay in their matrix as they are found in nature. We 
saw all sorts of vessels, karil, Tea- cups, T/zee-kappar, 
saucers, skalar, snuff-boxes, dosor, caskets, askar, spoons, 
Skedar, ladles, slefvar, and other small instruments, all 
manufactured out of Agates and Jaspis, &c. ; a number 
of different kinds of pearls, several learned men's Contre- 
faits, among which we particularly devoted ourselves to 
the study and admiration of the great Botanicus and 
[T. I. p. 432] Natural Historicus, John Ray. 

Mr. John Ray's Contrefait, is the only one of him 
that exists in England. It is very like that which is 
found in his "Wisdom of God in the Creation," on 
the title-page [T. I. p. 376.] A very large collection of 
insects from all parts of the world, all of which were now 
preserved in four-sided boxes, lador, with clear glass 
glued on both over and under, so that one could see them 
quite well, but these boxes or cases were also so well 
stuck together and so [T. I. p. ^yy~\ tight that no worms 



or other injurious insect could get at them, and spoil 
them [T. I. p. 433.] The sides were of wood. In some 
both lid and bottom, lacket OCh botten,were of a very 
clear glass, but in most only the lid. At the joints the 
glass was stuck or glued fast with paper. Where the 
bottom was of glass, the insect was gummed on to the 
middle of the bottom. [T. I. p. 377.] 

Some of the East and West Indian Butterflies, 
Piarilar, were far more showy than a peacock with his 
matchless variety of colours. A very large number of 
all kinds of corals and other harder sea plants, Sj6 
vaxter, a multitude of various sorts of crystals, several 
head-dresses of different races of men, musical instru- 
ments, &c. Various stuffed birds and fish, where the 
birds, Poglarna, often stood fast on small bits of board 
as naturella as if they still lived. Skeletons of various 
four-footed beasts, among which we particularly noticed 
that of a young elephant, the stuffed skin of a camel, and an 
African many-striped ass, mangrandig Asna. Several 
human skeletons larger and smaller, the head and other 
parts of a frightfully large whale [T. I. p. 438.] This 
Hvalfisk was said to have been go feet long. The 
length of its head bone was nearly 18 feet [T. I. p. 377.] 
Honungs-fogeln, humming birds from the West Indies, 
which there made a show with their many colours, and 
sat in their nest under glass as though they had been 
living; the bird's-nest, Pogel-bo, which they eat in Asia 
as any other food ; [T. I. p. 431] which they eat in the 
East Indies. It was white, and looked almost as if it 
had been made of white wax [T. I. p. 377.] A great 
collection of snakes, lizards, fishes, birds, caterpillars, 
insects, small four-footed animals [various anatomical 
specimens] etc. all put in spiritu vini in bottles, and well 
preserved ; dried skins of snakes from the East and West 
Indies, of many ells length and proportionately broad ; 



102 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

very many tomes of an herbarium, among which we par- 
ticularly examined those which Sir Hans Sloane himself 
had collected in Jamaica [T. I. p. 434] ; 336 volumes of 
dried plants in Royal folio ; on each leaf there were as 
many plants stuck on as there was room for. 

[T. I. p. 377.] Sir Hans Sloane's Library, which pro- 
bably has few like it among private collections gathered 
together by one single man, and consists of somewhat 
more than 48,000 volumes, all bound in superb bindings. 

[T. I. p. 427.] The 26th May, 1748. 

To-day I accompanied some gentlemen to Sir Hans 
Sloane's to see once more his Natural Samling, and in 
particular to get to make more exact observations on the 
Cobra di Capello, Serpent, which has, as it were, glass 
eyes on the neck, hvilken pa nacken har likasoni 
glas Ogon, [whence the French name " Le Serpent a 
lunettes," " Spectacle Snake " ; also " Naja," Naia 
Tripudians (Merv.) M. Morin Reptiles et Poissons, p. 68, 
illustrated on p. 69 and Frontispiece], and to get to 
count its scuta abdominalia and squamas caudales, 
abdominal plates and tail scales, about which Linnceus 
asked me in a letter. . . . [T. I. p. 437]. The 
snake, Cobra di Capello, had 183 scuta abdominalia and 
squamas Caudales. If the small squamce, which lie under 
the chin, parallel with the scuta abdominalia, are also 
reckoned, then there are two more. It was difficult enough 
to count them, because the snake lay in spivitu vim in a 
sealed glass bottle. 

[T. I. p. 427.] To describe all this great collec- 
tion in detail, omstandeligen, would fill several 
Folianter : for anyone who has not himself seen 
this collection would probably have very great diffi- 
culty in picturing to himself that it is so large. 
We had to-day the advantage that Sir Hans Sloane 



CHELSEA. IO3 

[T. I. p. 428] honoured us with his company for a couple 
of hours while we were studying and examining his vast 
collection. What we now examined was in particular 
the following [many stones, Agates, Jaspis &c] . . . 
Puddingstone is the name of a stone which we saw in abund- 
ance about Little Gaddesden and at other places in 
Hertfordshire. It is nothing else than a conglomeration, 
sammangyttring, of several small round flint-stones. 
In Hertfordshire it was used mostly for land-marks and 
boundary-stones, ramarken och granse-skilnader, 
I saw there quite large pieces of it. Here, in Sir Hans 
Sloane's collection, it was polished, and very much 
resembled Pudding of several kinds, whence it has also 
acquired its name. In the lapidaries' shops there were 
[T. I. p. 429] snuff-box lids of it which looked very 
handsome. The person who showed us this collection 
to-day told us that a certain Englishman some years ago 
bought some pieces of this polished, carried them to 
China, and there sold them, by which he made 1,200 per 
cent. A good transaction ! . . . [Several stones] 
cups, &c, some of which have often cost Sir Hans Sloane 
fifty guineas. [Saucers, spoons, &c] 

[T. I. p. 430.] Afterwards the most costly stones 
were shown us, which were arranged in a box made in a 
particular manner. The box was quadrilateral, a little 
more than 6 inches long and not quite 6 inches broad, and 
nearly 6 inches high. On the top it sloped from all sides 
together,* so that it resembled a monument on a grave, 
or a house with an Italian roof. It consisted of a great 
many small boxes, which are not drawn out as usual, 
but the upper box was always a lid to the under, so that 
the lowest box had for a lid all the boxes above it. The 
gems, adla-stenarna, were small and lay in small 

* We should say just the opposite. [J. L.] 



104 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

round holes turned or cut out in the boxes. It was said 
that in this box there were 1,300 different kinds of gems. 

[Various other stones [T. I. p. 431], various Foreign 
curiosities, and a silly picture]. 

[T. I. p. 432.] Afterwards we went into a long narrow 
room where the greater part of Sir Hans Sloane's rarities 
are. This room is about 12 feet broad. The height 
about 14 feet, the length was said to be no feet. Along 
the sides there stood at the bottom cabinets, skap, of 
sorts of Natural Curiosities, and other things, partly on 
them partly hung on the walls ; but about a fathom 
from the floor above the Natural Curiosities the walls 
were all covered with books. 

[The rest of p. 432 and 433 descriptions of contents 
of cabinets, also the greater part of 434, to same room.] 

[T. I. p. 434.] In another room we saw ... a 
machine to lay books on, when one wishes to read or 
requires several books at a time. I cannot so exactly 
describe it. It somewhat resembles such a wheel as there 
is in Stockholm at Norrbro (Northbridge), and is there 
driven by the stream [T. I. p. 435] but instead of each 
wing or board in that wheel there was here a long four- 
sided box, which was moveable on an axle, and seems to 
have had some weights in the bottom, for as this wheel 
was turned round, each box always had the same side 
downwards, The books were laid on the outer sloping 
sides of the box, and thus stood always in the same 
position, and went round with the wheel as it was 
turned. The length of this wheel was about 5 feet and 
its diameter about 3 or 4 feet. I do not remember, Jag 
kommer ej ihog, how many boxes there were, but one 
could have lying in front of him a very large number of 
books at a time. 

Here we saw twenty-four volumes of rare books, all in 
costly bindings, given to Sir Hans Sloane by the King of 
France. 



5,300 volumes of manuscripts in Medicine and Natural 
History, bound in beautiful bindings. 

A book of Chinese Paper with several beautiful 
pictures in it. 

Besides the aforenamed long and narrow room there 
were eight other rooms, in which all the walls were full of 
books, from the floor to the ceiling. Each of these 
rooms was about 14 ft. high, the length and breadth 
about 15 to 18 ft., sometimes more, sometimes less. 
[Other various objects of Natural History.] 

[T. I. p. 436.] The shoes of several different Races 
Polkslags Skor; but the Finns' Birch-bark shoes, 
Pinnarnas Nafver-Skor,*and the Russians'bast-shoes, 
Russarnas Bast-Skorf , made of lime-bark were con- 
spicuous by their absence. 

[Various other objects.] 

In another room were several of such books as 
consisted of colored pictures [T. I. p. 437] of all sorts 
of Natural objects. Such were Mariana's, Catesby's, 
Sebe's, Madame Blackwell's, &c, costly works, Egyp- 
tian Mummies, Roman and other Antiquities, &c. In 
the garden we saw Sir Hans Shane's Chair [T. I. p. 438] 
with three wheels under it, two in front and a little one 
behind, in which he was drawn about in his garden. 

[T. I. p. 438.] The 26th May, 1748. 
Thermometers Jamforelse Comparison of Thermometers. 

After I was tired of seeing all this [Sir Hans Sloane's 



* Finnarnas Nafver-Skor, the white birch-bark. The Lapp name 
for the birch is Sake, as Linnaeus (Flora Lapponica Amst. 1737, 8vo. p. 262) 
remarks. " Calceos dum piscatum eunt, gerunt ex ramentis (p. 263) 
corticis betulini," &c. " when they go a fishing they wear long boots made of 
pieces of birch-bark," &c. [J. L.] 

t Russarnas Bast-Skor. Ger " Bast Schuhe, Basteln, Fuss. " Lapshy 
Iplur.), des Souliers de cordes d'ecorce d'arbre." J. Heym. Deutsch-Rtiss- 
Franz IV orlerbuch , 1805, obi. 8vo. [J. L.J 



106 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Collection] I went to the Chelsea Physic Garden as it is 
called, where I compared the Thermometer of Prof. 
Andrew Celsius, with that Mr. Miller used in the 
orangery, and the difference was this : — 
When Celsius stood at Mr. Miller's was 

( 37, the graduation on the right. 
^ I 34, the graduation on the left. 

f 25, the graduation on the right. 
\ 28|, the graduation on the left.* 

[T. I. p. 455.] The 16th June, 1748. 
Botanic Garden at Chelsea. 

In Chelsea lies the famous Botanic Garden, which 
in London is called Chelsea Physick Garden, which be- 
longs to Apothecaries Hall in London, was established 
for the Education of Apothecaries in the knowledge of 
herbs, and has, as regards herbs, one of the largest 
collections of all rare foreign plants, so that it is said in 
that respect to rival the Botanic Gardens of both Paris 
and Ley den. At least it is believed to overgo them in North 
American plants. It is laid out at Chelsea [T. I. p. 456], 
a short English mile from London, because a great 
many plants cannot thrive in London for the coal-smoke. 
The river Thames flows past it on one side. On the 
opposite side lies the orangery full of all such foreign 
plants as cannot stand constant exposure to the open air. 
Among other foreign trees which are found there are 
four Cedars of Lebanon, which stand out in the garden 
and are now as large and high as our largest firs, Furur, 
although they were not planted there before the year 
1683, and stand there in a very meagre earth. The 
ground for this garden has been presented to the 

* Miller's was apparently a differential Thermometer. One was 
invented before 1676 by Johann Christoph Sturm, Prof, of Mathematics 
at Altdorf. [J. L 1 



CHELSEA. I07 

Apothecaries Hall by Sir Hans Sloane, with the con- 
dition that they shall supply it with fifty new plants every 
year. In one room of the Orange-house, that, namely, in 
which the plants are set in the winter time, which cannot 
bear exposure in the open air, but still do not require 
any heat, stands Sir Hans Sloane carved in white 
alabaster with a scroll of paper in his hand, on a white 
marble pedestal. 

On the South side of this pedestal, towards the 
entrance these words are read : 

" Sir Hans Sloane, Baronet, 

Physician to his Majesty, 

President 

of the Royal College of Physicians 

and Royal Society 

who 

That the knowledge of plants 

might be preserved and improved 

to the Glory of God 

and Benefit of mankind 

[T. I. p. 457] Gave this ground 

in the year of our Lord 1721 

To the Company of Apothecaries London 

To be a Physic Garden for ever." 

On the East side are these words : 

" They 

Being sensible how necessary 

that branch of science is 

to the faithful discharging the Duty 

of their Profession 

with gratefull hearts 

and general consent 

Ordered this Statue to be Erected 

in the year of our Lord 1733 

That their successors and Posterity 

may never forget 

Their Common Benefactor." 



I08 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

On the West side stand these words : 

" Placed here in the year 1737 
Sir Benjamin Rawling Kn't, Master. 

Mr. Joseph Miller l Wardens# » 
Mr. Joseph Richards ) 

[T. I. p. 457.] Ray's Herbarium. 

In a room up in the Orangery there is preserved 
as a great rarity, the collection of plants which the 
great Historicus Naturalis, J oh. Rajus or Ray himself 
collected and arranged, and with his own hand wrote 
the names under. Mr. Ray presented this collection a 
week before his death, which took place the 17th January, 
1706, to his good friend and neighbour, Mr. Samuel Dale, 
author of the well known Pharmacologia. [T. I. p. 458.] 
Mr. Dale afterwards in his old age gave this as well as 
his own collection of plants to the Physic Garden at Chelsea, 
to be preserved for ever. The plants in Mr. Ray's 
Herbarium were sewn with cotton on to the paper in 
large paper books. The whole collection consisted of 
about eight or twelve such paper books in folio. In some 
places the plants had been cut out, for Dr. Sherard had 
borrowed this collection from Mr. Dale, and when he 
had found any plant, which was either rare, or he thought 
much of, it was said that he had either clipped or cut it 
out, so that the books had been sufficiently mutilated.* 

Mr. Philip Miller, in whose charge this garden is left, 
is and no mistake a great Horticulturist, Tragardr 
mastare. So much the better to be able to judge of 
this, I will mention one thing and another, which throws 

* This is one of the most interesting accounts in the whole of Kaltn. 
William Sherard was at Smyrna from 1702 to 1718, therefore the mutilation 
of Ray's Herbarium must have taken place between that date and Sherard's 
death in 1722, at the age of 69. Sherard bequeathed his Herbarium con- 
taining 12,000 species of plants, to the University of Oxford. [J. L.] 



CHELSEA. IO9 

light on the subject, and just as they have been related 
to me by trustworthy men. Mr. Miller's father was a 
Nurseryman, who followed that occupation all his life, 
and in the Practique of it had gone a long way. He had 
begun to instruct his son, this Philip Miller, in the art 
from his earliest years, and was in this so much the more 
lucky, that his son had an uncommon liking for that 
occupation. As the man throve, so he spared no expense 
in also causing his son to have a sufficient education in 
various languages, and other sciences, which profit and 
adorn a man. Miller quickly assimilated all that his father 
had himself taught him, both in Theorie and Praxi, of orna- 
mental and kitchen gardening. At the same time he 
went through all books which had appeared in England 
on these sciences. An industrious intercourse with other 
enterprising nurserymen in this [T. I. p. 459] town and in 
the country round made him still more proficient. But he 
did not stop with this. A change of soil, climate, &c, 
often causes a plant which can, according to ordinary rules, 
be transplanted at one place, not to admit of this being 
accomplished with the same advantage at another place, 
but a particular treatment is often required at each place. 
His thoughts were therefore turned upon travelling. He 
was well off, and had therefore no difficulty in accom- 
plishing this. To travel out to foreign countries without 
having first made himself acquainted with what remark- 
able things there are to be found at home, he held 
neither for wisdom nor usefulness. He therefore tra- 
velled through the greater part of England, observing 
everything, but was especially careful to inspect all 
ornamental and kitchen gardens, and to make himself 
at home and acquainted with all horticulturists, for he 
was of the opinion that he could get to learn something 
useful which he did not know before, at least from some 
of them. He conversed with them on all matters con- 



IIO KALMS ENGLAND. 

nected with their business, and had his trouble often 
many times repaid with the useful wrinkles, de nyttiga 
ron, he gained. As agriculture has so near a connection 
with horticulture, Tragards vasendet, therefore he 
kept at the same time an observant eye on everything 
which occurred in rural economy, landthushallningen, 
particularly in the cultivation of ploughed lands. Thence 
it comes that he is still reckoned as the greatest theo- 
reticus in England. 

After he had thus travelled through England, he 
started on his foreign travels, and then explored Flanders 
and Holland, because he knew that there were also great 
horticulturists there, and that the science of the manage- 
ment of ornamental and kitchen gardens had there 
reached a high pitch of excellence. Whether he, besides 
the aforenamed lands, also explored other districts, I 
have not understood, but from the foregoing it can be 
seen [T. I. p. 460] that no nurseryman has so much 
advantaged himself in learning both the theorie and 
practique of his business. After his return home he 
devoted much time in practising all that he had known 
before, and that he learned upon his travels. Hereupon 
he afterwards published his Gardeners' Dictionary in Folio, 
in which he describes in detail the cultivation of all sorts 
of plants, those which belong to kitchen gardens, as well 
as those which are cultivated in academical and medi- 
cinal gardens, with numerous other useful notes. Some 
time after that there also appeared the 2nd volume, in 
which he completes the work by the account of the 
cultivation of plants omitted in the first volume ; but as 
this large work was dear enough, he shortly after made 
an abstract of it, in which he excluded all philosophical 
and other curiensa passages, and introduced only that 
which particularly belongs to a nurseryman's business, 
so that nothing on that subject is omitted, The large 



book is printed in Folio, the latter in 8vo. His great 
Gardeners' Dictionary in Folio was some time back, in the 
summer of 1752, republished with many corrections and 
additions, after it had first been translated and printed 
in several languages. 

As regards the common opinion of Miller's Gardeners' 
Dictionary, I have asked several of the greatest and best 
horticulturists both in England and America, what author 
and what book they had found and believed to be the 
best in Horticulture, not only as regards a number of 
rare plants, but in particular those which are planted for 
the kitchen and Fabriquer, both trees and plants. They 
have all answered with one mouth, Miller's Gardeners' 
Dictionary, either in Folio, or the abstract in 8vo., 
was the best of all, and that when one has it, no other 
book is afterwards required, because there is found 
in it everything that is in the others, and much 
more besides, and that both more clearly and better 
worked out than in any other, although the others often 
have manifold more words. The same answer I have 
also got from several distinguished persons who had them- 
selves had a particular pleasure in planting trees and 
plants with their own hands. If any of the Lords and 
the great " Herrar " in England wished to lay out a new 
garden, or to remake an old one, Mr. Miller would always 
show them how it ought to be done. When the greatest 
lords drove out to their estates, he often drove out with 
them in the same carriage, i samma vagn. In a word, 
the principal people in the land set a particular value on 
this man. 




AMERICAN NOTES 

Made in London. 



[T. I. p. 384.] Vax af et slags Porss. 

Wax from a kind of sweet willow. 

In many places where there are morasses or wet 
grounds in North America there grows in abundance a 
little bush, which is called by Botanists Myrica foliis 
lanceolatis subserratis, fructu baccato. Linn. Hort. Cliff. 
455. Upsala 295. This Myrica or sweet willow, Pors, 
instead of other fruit has berries which have on the 
outside a kind of a wax, which is used as a candle, til 
1JUS. They take the berries and cast them into a pot of 
boiling water, when the wax melts off the berries by itself 
and floats as a grease on the top of the water. When the 
water is cold, the wax hardens, and can then be taken off 
and kept till it is wanted. The candle is made from it in 
the same way as tallow or ordinary wax. They mostly mix 
this wax with the tallow they are going to make dip 
candles of, as it makes the tallow candle harder and 
firmer ; for if the summers in Virginia are very warm 
then the tallow candle becomes so soft and weak from 
the great heat that it cannot stand straight but bends 
down ; but if some of this wax is melted together with 
the tallow they never bend with the summer heat. Some 
112 



AMERICAN NOTES. 1 13 

of the poor people in that country are said to make 
[T. I. p. 385] their candles entirely from this wax. 

The Duke of Argyll had some of these bushes planted 
in his garden, which not only thrive there incomparably 
well, but had also borne such a quantity of fruit that he 
caused wax candles to be dipped from the wax which 
he caused to be boiled from the berries in the above- 
named manner. 

Villa Oxar. Wild Oxen. 

When the traveller in Virginia has gone some miles 
from the sea shore up country, or up towards the hills, 
he often gets to see a multitude of the wild Oxen which 
are found there. When they become aware of the 
presence of man, they run away directly without doing 
any harm ; but if any one shoots at them and they 
are only wounded by the bullet and not nearly killed, 
they come rushing at the one who has fired, and are 
dangerous enough unless one can find a means either 
to shoot them down directly and kill them, or to slip 
away. Their principal food is the great Reed (Arundo), 
which there grows everywhere in the morasses. The 
Indians or the wild folk there, shoot them, sometimes 
eat up the flesh, or throw it away and use the skin, or 
sell it to the Europeans, who make the same use of it as of 
any other ox-leather. 

A certain Gentleman of Virginia has caught some of 
their calves alive and reared them at home, but he has 
never been able to get them so thoroughly tame that they did 
not at the same time retain some of their wild and buffalo 
nature, yxa natur ; for as soon as they have been 
let loose they have run away to the woods, and no fence 
or hedge has been so good that they have not broken 
over it. Such a living calf had also been carried over 
to England and is the same [T. I. p. 386] which is 



114 KALM*S ENGLAND. 

depicted in Mr. Catesby's beautiful work on Carolina. 
Some gentlemen in Virginia had also got these oxen 
tolerably tame, but they have nevertheless, mostly, in 
the end to shoot them dead, on account of the great 
damage they have caused ; for when they have been let 
loose, they have not indeed run away but have remained 
at the farm, and gone in to any enclosure they chose, 
eaten up and trampled down the crops and other 
planted things ; because no hedge can be so strong 
that they could not knock it down with their horns or 
at least make themselves an opening or gap through it. 

[T. I. p. 405.] The 16th May, 1748. 

Svinens foda, Kott, &c, in North America. Dr. 
Mitchel said that there is hardly in any part of the 
world more beautiful and well-flavoured pork, svin- 
kott, than in North America. This he principally 
ascribed to the maize, which is there planted, and grows 
in abundance, and on which the swine are fed. They 
are also driven into the oakwoods in the autumn, where 
they feed on the numerous acorns, ek-ollen, which are 
there found. 

[T. I. p. 409.] The iSth May, 1748. 

Friesland nu forloradt. Friesland now lost. 

In the morning I called upon Dr. Mortimer, who was 
Secretary of the Royal Society. Among other subjects 
that we talked about, he asked me if I knew what had 
become of the Friesland, which in former times was 
named as a land which lay west of Iceland. He showed 
a couple of old maps, Landt-chartor, both of which 
had Friesland shown as a large island, getting on for 
half as large as Iceland and west of it. On Friesland 
there were shown the names of many havens and places. 



AMERICAN NOTES. 1 15 

One of these maps was engraved in the year 1666, As 
we at the present day do not know of any large 
island in the same longitude and latitude, so it is a 
question what to think of it. Can there have been such 
an island ? Dr. Mortimer related that he had talked 
about it with several old. sea captains, and one of them 
had told him that when he had sailed in about the same 
longitude and latitude as the old maps had placed 
Friesland, he had found there a much shallower water 
than elsewhere, indeed in some places so shallow that he 
had not ventured to proceed in that direction ; for the 
rest, all sea captains had said that at the present time 
there is no land, island, or anything of the kind seen there. 
May there not formerly have been a large island which 
has since sunk ?* 

* Friesland or Frisland, one of the phantom islands of the North 
Atlantic, has been the subject of much speculation among geographers. The 
first suggestion of the island upon the map. appears on the Edrisi map, 1154. 
(Tabula rotunda Rogeriana) where a considerable island is shown to the north 
of England and Ireland marked " Resland." Next on the oval diagram known 
as the Imago Mundi of Ranulfus de Hyggeden, 1360, an island called 
" Wrislad," appears with Noravega, Islanda and Tile. Lelewel considers 
with some show of reason that " Resland" and "Wrislad" represent Frislanda 
(Geog. du Moyen Age. vol. hi. p. 101, n.). On the Genoese Pizigani map, 
1367, is an island opposite to the south-west coast of Norway, called 
"Sialanda;" an island in a corresponding position is shown on the Catalane 
map, 1375, and on the map of Fredrici d' Ancone, 1497, (Wolfenbutel) named 
" Stillanda," and this island on both these maps bears a legend, stating that 
the inhabitants speak the language of Norway and are Christians. This name 
" Stillanda " has been read by some modern geographers as " Frislanda." 
There can be no doubt, however, as to the correct reading, if either the 
original Catalane map, preserved in the Bibliotbeque Nationale in Paris, or 
the fine photographic facsimile published by Delisle "Documents Geogra- 
phiques, 1883," (Brit. Mus. S. 35, 5, sheet 16), is referred to. The facsimile 
of the Catalane map in Santarem's Atlas (Brit. Mus., Tab. 1850, a. pi. xiii), 
gives the same reading, but is not so clear. Lelewel reads it " Scillante." 
The Pizigani map is given in Jomard (Brit. Mus , S. 11. I. map. x.) and the 
Wolfenbutel map in Santarem's Atlas (Brit. Mus., Tab. 1850, a. page 74.) The 
names and positions of the Island "Sialanda" or "Stillanda," in the three 

12 



Il6 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 418.] The 22nd May, 1748. 
Silk-grass in America, 

I asked Dr. Mitchel what sort of grass silk-grass was, 
which is mentioned in the description of Virginia, and is 
said to serve the same purpose as hemp. He answered 
that it is called by M orison in his Hist* Yucca foliis 
filamentosis, and grows in Virginia on the sea-shore. It 
was formerly used like flax and hemp to make clothes of, 

maps last named show that it is the " Stillante " of the Fra Mauro map, 1459, 
i.e. Estland or Shetland. This, however, is not altogether inconsistent with its 
being the genesis of the Frislanda in the Zeno map, referred to below, as the 
name may have been then misread, as it has been in later days, and the learned 
ignorance of the cartographers of the XlVth and two following centuries, and 
their confusion as to the names and true situations of the islands in the North 
Atlantic, is abundantly evidenced by their maps. The first map on which the 
name " Frislanda " is found clearly written, is that by Juan de la Cosa, who 
accompanied Columbus on his second voyage (1493-1496), drawn in 1500. 
The name occurs also on the Portuguese "Carta da Navigar," by Alberto 
Cantino, 1503, but in this the position of the island is shifted farther to 
the east, close to the Ilhas de Fogo. "Insula de Uresland" is shown on a 
Map in Kunstmann, c. 1505 (Brit. Mus. Tab. 1850, a. Blatt. II). Neither 
Bordone, 1528, nor Zeigler, 1532, mentions it either in their text or on their 
maps. Zurla recognises Frisland in the " Ixilandia" of the Fra Mauro map, 1459. 

Frislanda is mentioned by Christopher Columbus in a memorandum 
referring to his voyage to Iceland in 1477 (quoted in the life of the Admiral 
written by his son, Ferdinand Columbus, who died in 1539, in Spanish, but 
first published in 1571,01 Italian) in which he distinguishes it from Iceland 
and identifies it with the Thule of Ptolemy. 

But it is principally in connection with the apocryphal voyages of the 
Venetian brothers Nicolo and Antonio Zeno at the end of the XlVth 
century that the name of Frisland is known. An account of these 
travels was published in Venice in December, 1558, and was accompanied 
by a map compiled by Nicolo Zeno, a direct descendant of Antonio, and 
founded, as he alleges, on an old and rotten map found among the family papers 
of the Zeni. The narrative is given by Ramusio (3rd ed., 2nd vol., 1574), 
by Hakluyt (Divers Voyages 1582, and Voyages and Navigations vol. 3, 1600) 
and an abstract appears in Purchas hys Pilgrims (vol. 3, 1625). The Zeno 
map was accepted as genuine, and copied with slight alteration by Ruscelli 



* Historia plantarum Universalis, Tomi III. Robert Morison. Oxon 
1680, 1689, Fol. [J. L.] 



AMERICAN NOTES. 1 17 

but since they have been in the habit of getting clothes 
and other similar things from Europe, the method of 
preparing this has been so far forgotten that they no 
longer know in what way it was formerly prepared. 

[T. I. p. 419.] Dr. Mitchel said that he had sown it 
in his garden in Virginia, where it throve well. He had 
attempted to treat it in the same way as hemp, when he 
obtained from the fibres in the leaves a sort of fibre not 
unlike hemp. Only a few of the wild plants grow in 

(Ptolemy, Venice, 1561), by Moletius (Ptolemy, Venice, 1562), by Gerard 
Mercator, 1569, and by Ortelius (Theatrum Orbis, 1570). Frobisher thought he 
had actually found the Frisland of the Zeno map when he reached Greenland 
on his first voyage in 1576, and that he sailed along its coast four days on his 
second voyage in 1577, and landed there on his third voyage in 1578. 

The map took a strong hold on the geographers of the day and was used 
by cartographers for nearly two centuries after its appearance in 1558. 
Since then many writers have endeavoured to reconcile its falsities with facts, 
while others have held that both the map and the narrative were altogether 
founded on fiction alone, e.g., Torfaeus (1705) and Charlevoix (1744). Of 
the former class some have believed that Frisland did once actually exist, 
but that it has been submerged, or lost by some natural convulsion ; amongst 
these are Delisle (1720), the Due d'Almadover, The Abbe Zurla (1806) 
and Amoretti (1811) ; others have tried to identify it with some land still 
existing, but known to us by another name. John Reinhold Forster (1786), 
the translator of the American portion of Kami's travels, somewhat inconsist- 
ently adopted both these views, but he seems finally to have preferred the 
latter, and identifies Frisland with Fara, Fera or Ferasland, a small island 
off the east coast of Hoy in the Orkneys; others, e.g., Terra Rossa (1686), 
followed by Admiral Irminger (1879), have satisfied themselves that Frisland 
was Iceland, but the majority "in number and value" of writers on this 
subject, though differing on other points, think that it was the Faroes ; of 
these are Buache (1784), Eggers (1794), Maitebrun (1831), Zahrtmann (1833), 
Bredsdorf (1845), Lelewel (1852), and Major (1873-9). 

An examination of the copy of the large map of Olaus Magnus, Venice, 
1539, long missing, but a copy of which was discovered by Dr. Oscar 
Brenner at Munich in 1886, since any of the above mentioned authors 
have written on the matter, seems to make it clear that the opinion 
was correct that the Frislanda of the Zeno map has its original in the 
Faroes. Zahrtmann says : that the then name Faer-eyar does not appear in 
the Zeno narrative as it was difficult to Italianize. Frisland is probably a 
contraction of the adjectival form Faereysk-land. The identity of the 



IT$ KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Virginia, but its home is farther south. Dr. Mitchel 
believed also that it is scarcely found in Pennsylvania 
because it is too cold there for this plant. I have since 
found this was true, and that linen is prepared from its 
leaves. 

[T. I. p. 420.] 23rd May, 1748. 
Nearly the whole afternoon was spent at the house of 
Mr. Catesby, a man who is very well known for his Natural 
History of Carolina in America. In this work he has in- 

Frislanda of the Zeno narrative is another matter, and such is the 
confusion of this story, that it is not wonderful that Forster has 
scattered the names shown upon the Frislanda of the Zeno map, over 
the Orkneys, the Hebrides and the Faroes. The Frislanda of Christopher 
Columbus was also most probably the Faroes. The Friesland referred 
to by Kalm is evidently that of the Zeni. The map of 1666, which 
he saw at Dr. Mortimer's, was probably one of Seller's. The largest 
and most detailed map of Frisland is that which occurs in the Lafreri 
Atlas (i55 0_I 575)' °f which only two perfect copies are known to exist. 
It contains, with three notable exceptions (viz., Monach, Ledovo, and 
llofe, which are not in the field of the Lafreri map), all the names on the 
Zeno map, but is much larger, and the island is shown covered with trees, 
fields, towns, &c. Unfortunately, the map, a later copy of which may be 
found in the British Museum under the name " Petri de Nobilibus formis, 
S. 10. 1. (156)," is not dated, so that a doubt remains which of the two maps 
is the older. It is usual, however, to reduce a small map from a large one 
and not to elaborate a large map from a small one, and this would point to 
the probability that the Lafreri map is earlier than the much smaller and less 
detailed Zeno map. However this may be, Frisland kept its place on many 
of the principal maps of the XVI th and XVIIth centuries. 

Against the theory of submergence or destruction there is no physical 
impossibility, or even improbability, as the alleged site of the island lies 
within an area in which the land is sinking, and in the neighbourhood cf 
extinct volcanoes. But it is incredible that a large island with many towns 
and ports, and having constant and considerable mercantile transactions with 
Flanders, Brittany, England, Scotland and Denmark, as alleged in the Zeno 
narrative, in the XlVth century, should have totally disappeared without 
some record of such a remarkable catastrophe having been preserved in the 
histories of those countries with which it traded. On this account alone the 
submergence theory must be rejected, and the identity of Frisland with the 
Faroes maintained. [F. W. L.] 



AMERICAN NOTES. II9 

comparably well represented with lifelike colours, the 
rarest trees, plants, animals, birds, fishes, snakes, frogs, 
lizards, painted-toads, skildpaddor, and insects, which 
are there found, so that no one can see that they are not 
living where they stand with their natural colours on the 
paper. Mr. Catesby seemed to be a man of nearly sixty 
years, and was somewhat short-sighted. He now devoted 
his time to reading, and to further elaborating the 
Natural History. His aforesaid work, which consisted of 
two large Volumes in Regal Folio, was very dear ; and 
both together now cost in England twenty-two to twenty- 
four guineas, therefore not for a poor man to buy. 

[T. I. p. 420.] The 23rd May, 1748. 
Nytta och Skada af Punch. 

Good and harm of P. I asked Mr. Catesby and Dr. 
Mitchel whether they thought that Punch was a useful 
or a baneful drink ? They answered that their opinion 
was that it is beneficial or baneful according as it is 
prepared. Mr. Catesby [T. I. p. 421] said that his 
experience in Virginia and Carolina had been as follows. 
They drank at one time Punch which was made of 
strong Brandywine or rum and water with much sugar 
in it, but only a little lemon-juice was added. The 
effect, which they gradually found, of this was, that after 
some time they got a kind of Paralysis, which was such 
that they could not hold anything with the fingers ; for 
they had almost no strength in them, but were obliged 
to place everything they wished to take hold of between 
the two hands. For example, they could not hold the 
glass which they wished to raise to the mouth with the 
fingers, which they could not press together, but between 
the wrists, hand-logorna. 

Afterwards they began to diminish the quantity of 
Brandywine and sugar but to put more lemon-juice in 



> 



120 KALM S ENGLAND. 

it, after which they did not get such troublesome paralysis, 
although commonly the sad future consequence was 
that he who drank Punch generally became very palsied, 
darrande, in his old age. 

[T. I. p. 424.] The 25th May, 1748. 

Gramina perennia nog rara uti Virginien. Peren- 
nial grasses rare enough in Virginia. Dr. Mitchel, who had 
lived a very long time in Virginia and North America* told 
me that perennial grasses are there very rare. The 
grasses that are mostly found there are generally gramina 
annua, which sow themselves every year. For this 
reason he said he was disposed to have a large number 
of seeds of gramina perennia collected here, and sent over 
to Virginia to be sown there. For the rest, he said that 
the grass in Virginia has not the beautiful vivid and 
green colour [T. I. p. 425] that it has here in Europe, but 
the colour of the grass is there brownish, and not so 
grateful to the eye. 



* With reference to the " Dr. Mitchel " who has been so frequently 
mentioned : — 

John Mitchel, MD., F.R S., emigrated to America early in the 18th 
century, returned to England in 1748, and died in America 1772. He was 
the author of various Botanical, Zoological, and Medical books, but is best 
known for his excellent map of America, which was published in 1755. It 
has been often used in boundary negotiations, and is still regarded as an 
authority. [F. W. L.] 





WOODFORD. 

Country between London and Woodford. 
[T. I. p. 146.] The 2&th February, 1748. 

N the morning I went out into the 
country to a place named Wood- 
ford, 10 miles from London, in 
Essex. The prospect of the 
country between London and 
Woodford, where we now travelled 
was mostly plain, or only in small 
hills. The whole way there is 
nothing else but a succession of 
beautiful houses, fertile arable fields and verdant meadows. 
At all the houses there was commonly a garden full of 
various beautiful trees. The walls of the houses were 
overdrawn either with Syringa, Caprifolium, [Lonicera 
Caprifolium] Goatsleaf Honeysuckle, Hedera, Ivy or 
Mespilus pyri folio Sempervirens, or some other kinds. 
In some places there were not planks but hedges round 
the gardens, of Taxus, yew, elm, hawthorn, or some 
other tree. 

The whole of the land was divided into inclosures, or 
tappor OCh tackter, which were all surrounded by 
hedges of all kinds of planted trees, especially hawthorn, 
sloe, [T. I. p. 147] dog-rose, blackberry-bushes, holly, 
Agrifolium, together with a number of other trees 



122 KALMS ENGLAND. 

which had come to grow in the hedges. In some places, 
especially nearer to London, there were high earth-banks 
cast up, about 4 feet high, instead of hedges round the 
fields. They consisted of the usual brick-colored clay of 
the district, with a quantity of gravel and pebblestones, 
grus och sma slata flint-stenar. These fences 
gardes-gardar, or earth-walls, mull-vallar, require 
repairing yearly. 

The earth, mullen, had now slipped down in many 
places and made an opening so that the cattle could go 
through it. But they are not here so difficult to maintain, 
because the winters here are seldom so sharp that there 
is any frost in the earth, at det blir nagon tjala i 
jorden, which otherwise is in a position to damage an 
earth-wall sooner than anything else. The beautiful 
appearance of the country must altogether be ascribed 
to industry and labour. It resembles one continuous 
pleasure garden, tra eller lustgard, from the many 
living hedges there are everywhere. 

London's many towers appeared in the distance. 
However clear the air may be, there seems always to be 
a fog-like cloud standing over the town, which comes 
from the coal-smoke which ascends in abundance from 
the innumerable fireplaces, where fires are continually 
burning. The roads are full of travellers, on foot and on 
horseback, in wagons and carts, who travel backwards 
and forwards, so that one often has, as it were, to steer 
through them. In some places the Thames appears in 
the distance with many ships and vessels sailing there 
outwards and upwards. 

The River Lea. Here and there are river channels 
and cuts, Candler, some made expressly and artificially 
from the Thames up country, for the purpose of con- 
veniently carrying coals and other commodities. * 

* The river Lea is rendered navigable for barges up to Hertford, by 
many artificial " cuts." [J. L.] 



WOODFORD. 123 

[T. I. p. 148.] The 4th March, 1748. 
Bot for Brannsar. 

Remedy for burns. Among remedies for burns it is 
reckoned an exceedingly good one to rub the burned 
place with ink, bleck, directly one has burned oneself, 
which not only prevents blisters from rising, but also at 
the same time heals, which effects are attributed to the 
vitriol in the ink. 

The yth March. 

Epping Forest. Immediately to the North and East 
of Woodford there lies a beautiful forest, 16f-skog. The 
soil, as in the whole district, is en grof rodaktig 
eller tegel-fargad sand, som har kallas gravel, a 

coarse reddish or brick-colored sand, which is here called 
gravel, mixed with a fine earth and a quantity of ordinary 
blackish flints. The forest is high-lying. Rabbits and 
roe-deer are said to abound in it, though we did not see 
any when we passed through it. Nor did we find any 
plants in this forest in flower, excepting the trees named 
below. Otherwise the ground was everywhere green. 
The trees had not been allowed to grow high, ej fatt 
vaxa langa, but after they had obtained a height of 
9-12 feet they had polled them for firewood, ved, or 
some other purpose. They had afterwards thrown out 
many branches, and thus made a crown. 

The trees which we found in this forest were the 
following : 

Ilex foliis ovatis acutis spinosis, Linn. Hort. Ups. 32, 
Agrifolium, &c, of Ray, called by the English Holly, was 
here the commonest of all trees. (I. Aquifolium.) 

It grew mostly in bushes, but sometimes as trees of 
12 feet high. The reason of its short growth was, that it 
was cut off by the surrounding inhabitants for firewood, 
ved. This [T. I. p. 149] bush which keeps its green and 



124 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

beautiful leaf the whole winter, was an ornament to these 
woods. It is much to be wished that it would grow in 
Sweden. 

Carpinus, 786, Afvenbok, [C. Betulus L. 1770], is 
called by Englishmen Hornbeam, and occurs in con- 
siderable abundance. It had a good many of the last 
year's leaves remaining, but withered enough. From 
some trees they were all fallen off. 

Cratcegus, Hagtorn, hawthorn > in considerable 
abundance, though quite small bushes. The leaves 
were all off. 

Fagus, Bdk, beech, very abundant, had nearly all its 
last year's leaves remaining, although completely dried 
up. The bark was quite smooth and resembled R6nn, 
\_Sorbus Aucuparia] the Rowan tree or Mountain Ash. 

Quercus, Ek, oak, here and there tolerably abundant. 
From the old trees the leaves had mostly fallen off, but 
for the most part, still remained on the young ones. 

Ulex, [U. Europseus], called by the English Furze, 
grew in some places, especially on the edge of the 
forest, in great abundance. Mr. Richard Warner [author 
of part of a translation of Plautus, 1767, and of Plantae 
Woodfordienses ; Catalogue of the plants about Woodford, 
London 1771, 8vo.] told me that it flowers nearly the 
whole year, except a couple of months in mid-winter. 
As this plant is very full of thorns, taggar, it is difficult 
to advance without boots where it is abundant. At a 
distance many might have thought that there was a group 
of Juniper bushes, Enbuskar; for its leaves, blan, 
resemble it, and it grows in exactly the same or similar 
places. About its great [T. I. p. 150.] usefulness for 
hedges, &c, an account shall be given farther on. 

Rosa, Vulg. Dog Rose, with several other varieties 
of the same, grow here and there. They had now no 
leaves. Rubus [R. Fruticosus~] Bj ornbars-buskar , 



WOODFORD. 125 

Blackberry -bushes, grew here and there especially in the 
hedges, gardesgardar. The stalks were often 18 feet 
long and more. They did not stand erect, but when they 
had grown about a fathom in height they curved down 
to the ground, and afterwards crept along it. It was 
not good to get along where these grew abundantly, 
on account of their long thorns. In the hedges they 
were not so uneven. The leaves were fallen off most of 
them, but on some few they were still remaining. 

Hedera [H. Helix, 190], called by the Englishmen 
Ivy, grew on a great many of the trees, up which it had 
clambered. In particular, it had taken up its abode in 
the crown which had been formed after carpinus (horn- 
beam) beech, and oak, had been polled, but the stalk 
went from the crown close to the tree down to the 
ground. It had green, fresh, and beautiful leaves. 

Spartium, 589 [S. Scoparium, now Cytisus Scoparius] 
Broom, grew here and there on the borders of the woods. 

Ruscus C. B. [R. Aculeatus] Butcher's Broom, grew in 
some places in the woods, but was quite small. The 
leaves fresh and green ; it had also remained in flower the 
whole winter, and flowers were now beginning to expand. 
The leaves ended in a spine, en tagg. The plant was 
pretty to have at the borders of garden beds, where 
box, buxbom, is now otherwise used. 

Daphne, Linn. Hort. Ups. 94, [D. Laureola] Spurge 
Laurel, grew here and there in the wood, though in few 
places. 

[T. I. p. 151]. The climate of England is quite 
different from that of Sweden, which the inhabitants 
ascribe partly to the more southerly position of the 
country, partly and principally to the surrounding ocean. 
The ground was here everywhere now quite green and 
bare of snow, except that some still remained near a 
few hedges, gardesgard, which was left from the 



126 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

unusually heavy snow that had fallen a fortnight before. 
All the cattle went out on the field to pasture, without 
the farmers having to take thought for their food. 
Indeed horses, cows, sheep, swine, geese, fowls, &c, 
often go out by themselves and seek their food in the 
fields the whole winter. For the cows they have also 
houses to put them in sometimes at night during bad 
weather, and a haystack close by in case of need ; the 
sheep are not allowed any house at all, but they go 
constantly under the open sky, summer and winter, 
night and day. It is only on account of the small lambs, of 
which they take a little care, that they are sometimes 
kept under cover, under tak. During the last-fallen 
heavy snow, which lay a long time, the sheep were kept 
quartered only by a haystack, there to have their food 
as long as the ground lay covered with snow. There is 
also in this district no difficulty in keeping a large 
number of cattle. A farmer also escapes the dis- 
advantage of giving himself much trouble and unrest 
in collecting fodder for the cattle during the winter 
[as in Sweden]. 

In the houses where the folk dwell the fire burns on 
the hearth all day, and a spjall is an entirely unknown 
thing, as has already been said. Therefore, when it is 
cold the folk sit round the fire, when often the one side 
is hot while the other side freezes. 

The earth and the ground, Jorden och Marken, 
takes here so little harm from cold and frost that one 
can plough the whole winter through, and there is hardly 
a month in the year in which [T. I. p. 153] some kind of 
seed is not sown. Spring-rye, barley, and pease, were 
already sown in the fields. Beans, pease, and other 
kitchen-garden fruits, were already sown for the most 
part by the close of February, and even by the middle 
and the beginning of that month. 



WOODFORD. 127 

Seas, rivers, and becks were open, only some fish- 
pond, fisk-dam, and some small pool, liten puss, had 
still ice at the end of February, when it was unusually 
cold here, but now they were all thawed, uptinade. It 
is looked upon as a very unusual thing when the river 
Thames at London is over-drawn with ice. One who 
lives there does not have the advantage of enjoying this 
treat many times in his life. It is true that sometimes 
during the winter a little snow falls here, but it seldom 
lies longer than three days, and when this does happen 
it is looked upon as something unusual, for which reason 
also those who live about London do not know what a 
sled, slada, is. 

The 8th March, 1748. 

Plants standing in flower at this date included only 
the following, which are partly among England's wild 
plants, and partly planted in their gardens. I except 
here Genista Spinosa and Ruscus, which also now stood 
in flower, because I have just mentioned them. We 
wandered a long way round about, and made a note of 
those we saw standing in flower. 

Crocus vernus was planted in gardens at the edges of 
flower beds, and especially on both sides of paths, where 
it formed a great ornament with its yellow, gula, flowers 
at this time of year. I saw it also with white, blue, and 
blue-grey flowers, though seldom. 

[T. I. p. 153]. Galanthus [G. Nivalis], Snowdrop, 
was planted in gardens in the same kind of places as 
the crocus. Of our wild plants in Sweden, the following 
were in flower, w T hich are numbered as in Linn. Flora 
Suecica : 

Alsine, 369 [Stellaria Media]. 
Lamium, 494 [Lamium purpureum]. 
Senecio, 690 [Senecio Vulgaris]. 
, Bellis, 707 [B. perennis] Daisy. 



128 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Corylus, 787 [C. Avellana] Hazel. 

Primula Veris, 161, Primrose. 

Chelidonium Minus, 460 [Ranunculus Ficaria]. 
The gth March, 1748. 
Hackar, hedges, were planted around all ploughed fields, 
meadows, and pastures, gardens and kitchen-gardens, and 
often around the ordinary courtyards and farmyards. 
Instead of a plank-fence, plank, round the fields, 
meadows, and pastures, they had first of all dug a ditch 
and cast up the earth on the bank of the ditch. In this 
banked-up earth there were afterwards planted small 
shoots, either of hawthorn [Cratoegus Oxyacantha], 
blackberry-bushes, 409, or dogrose, 406, Tome, mixed 
together. The hedges especially consisted most of 
hawthorn with blackberries and dogroses, interspersed 
here and there. The hawthorn was five times as 
numerous as the other two put together, if not more, 
and the blackberry bushes quite three times as many as 
the dogrose. At first, as long as these shoots were still 
small, they had set up beside them a dead fence, en dod 
hack, which was a kind of gardesgard, in which the 
twigs of the afore-named thorny bushes were instead 
of a fence, stangsel. Before the gardesgard, or 
dead fence, had become old, the planted trees were 
already so grown up, that they could afterwards fence off 
all cattle and completely fulfil their office. 

[T. 1. p. 154.] The height of these hedges was com- 
monly 6 feet, 9 feet, and sometimes 12 feet ; sometimes 
also only 3 or 4 feet. The thickness was from 2 feet to 
6 feet or more. In these hedges accidents such as wind, 
birds, mice, &c, have afterwards planted several other 
trees, as oaks and ashes ; Hornbeams 786 [Carpinus 
Betulus], Afvenbokar; Flader, 250 [Sambucus Nigra], 
Elder; Elms 219; Agrifolium {Raj. Syn. 466) [Holly] Ivy, 
190, and other leaf-trees. 



WOODFORD. I29 

The pollard oaks spread out like a crown, and 
formed a good shelter for cattle in hot sunshine or storm. 
All the twigs in this crown were very often cut and 
carried home for fuel, when other shoots commonly 
struck out anew. Sometimes when the hedge had very 
much widened out at the sides, it was cut right down, 
and a dead hedge set up instead. After a short time the 
cut-off stems shot forth a multitude of twigs, which after- 
wards formed the most beautiful hedge one could desire. 
A bad habit which I noticed hawthorn, blackberries, 
and dogroses had, was that they commonly creep with 
their roots over a wide space, vidt omkring, out 
towards the arable or meadows, where they had not 
prevented this by a little ditch close to the hedge. When 
they had so crept, no one had been with the scythe to 
the grass which was nearest to the hedge and on its side. 

Besides the manifold uses which these hedges serve, 
there are among ethers (1), that much wood, skog, 
which would otherwise be required for fences, gardsel, 
is by this means saved. (2) The labour of yearly laying 
down gardesgardar, dead-fences, is avoided [T. I. p. 155] 
because these, once planted, last for ever. (3) When 
anyone wishes to cut down an old hedge he has an 
abundance of fuel, and a new one comes up instead in a 
little time. (4) The cattle have a very good shelter, 
skjul OCh skyggd, from them against storms and other 
bad weather. (5) It is a matchless protection for 
ploughed fields and meadows, because storms and other 
cold winds, which otherwise on large open fields, 6pna 
fait, often thin away and destroy the plants, and cause 
great damage, are resisted by the hedge. (6) They are 
an incredible ornament to the country, because wherever 
one turns his eyes it seems as if the whole country 
were a beautiful and delightful garden. 

Farther on I shall describe in detail how these hedges 



I30 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

are laid down entirely new, or renewed from old ones, 
and managed, with many circumstances connected with 
the subject. 

H6et. The hay was arranged in stacks, commonly 
near the cowhouse, which in this country was mostly 
situated in one of the meadows or pastures. Over the 
haystack was no shelter but a little straw. It stood 
under the bare heavens, only that it was fenced in. We 
devoted a long time to the same to ascertain exactly 
what kinds of plants the hay here consisted of, and 
found them to be the following, numbered after Linn. 
Flor. Sv. : 

Anthoxanthum 29 [A. Odoratum]. 
Phleum 50 [P. pratense]. 
Agrostis 62 [A. Capillaris]. 
Aira 67 [Holcus Mollis]. 
Poa 77 [P. Angustifolia]. 
Cynosurus 81 [C. Cristatus]. 

,, 83 [Dactylis Glomerata]. 

Avena 96 [A. pratensis]. 
Lolium 104 [L. perenne]. 
Plantago 123 [P. Media]. 
Rumex 292 [R. Crispus]. 

,, 296 [R. Acetosella]. 
Cerastium 379 [C. Viscosum]. 
Ranunculus 466 [R. Acris]. 
Trifolium 612 [T. Repens Sv. Hvitvapling]. 

,, 615 [T. Pratense]. 
Carduus 658 [C. Crispus]. 
Chrysanthemum 700 [C. Leucanthemum]. 
Achillea 705 [A. Millefolium Sv. Rolleka]. 
Nos. 62 and 67 were the most abundant, and 81 
tolerably so. 



WOODFORD. 131 

[T. I. p. 156.] The 10th March, 1748. 
Trans plantering. The planting of trees. 

Whilst I was visiting at Woodford I often went about 
with Mr. Richard Warner, an English gentleman. He had 
inherited from his forelders a fine property, which he, in 
the English fashion, had rented out to farmers or tenants, 
and now lived on his rents out here on his estate, free 
from all unrest and oppressive cares. Few can be com- 
pared to him in a peculiar disposition to be of service in 
all things, both to natives and foreigners. He had 
travelled much, had a deep insight into nearly all sciences, 
but particularly horticulture _in which his principal pleasure 
consisted. In his garden were nearly all the trees and 
bushes that could endure the climate of England, and 
these stood the whole year out in the fresh air, and under 
the open sky. They were planted in mazes, laby- 
rinther, and in many other ways. One can see a list of 
such trees as will stand the climate of England in Miller s 
Gardeners' 1 Dictionary , at the end. I amused myself some- 
times in the daytime in standing by and seeing how he 
planted all sorts of different kinds of trees. He was not 
very tender about it. The earth in the garden consisted 
of a yellowish-red mould mixed with sand. A little pit 
was dug for the tree which was to be planted, which was 
sometimes only 18 inches or 2 feet, but sometimes 6, 8, or 10 
feet high. The pit was then adjusted to the size of the root. 
He generally took care that, when the tree was taken 
up out of the nursery, tra-seholan, or the open country, 
enough earth accompanied the roots, but still it often hap- 
pened that the roots were quite bare. When they were 
set in the hole, gropen, there was no manure laid undei 
or around the roots, but the [T. I. p. 157] earth which 
had been cast up when the hole was dug was cast on to 
and around the roots, and was afterwards trampled down ; 

but I remarked that sometimes, after the root of the tree 

k 2 



132 KALM S ENGLAND. 

had been set down in the hole, a couple of spadesful were 
taken from the surface soil which lay under the leaf-trees, 
planted two or three years before, and laid close round 
the roots, and sometimes a little under the same before 
the rest of the earth was shovelled on to them. 

The roots of Agrifolium, holly, were not cut off when 
they were set ; but the ends of the fibres are cut off all 
round the roots of Taxus. In the case of A cicular -leaved 
trees, Coniferse, such as Taxus, yew, Pinus Abies and 
P. Sylvestris, the Norwegian spmce and Scotch fir, Gran 
OCh Tall, I remarked that notwithstanding it was rainy 
weather the day after they had been planted, they were, 
nevertheless, watered plentifully enough around and on 
their roots. The reason was said to be this, that by that 
means they take root and become established sooner. In 
the case of some trees which had been planted the 
autumn before, grass or dried hay was laid over the 
mould or banked up earth around the plants, nmllen 
eller jordkupan, which was said to be done to protect 
the roots the first winter from cold. 

The nth March, 1748. 

Yesterday and to-day, and some of the following days, 
there fell a considerable quantity of snow, although it was 
nothing compared with the snow which falls every month 
through the winter with us in Sweden. 

However, nearly all Englishmen said that there had 
not for many years been so much snow here in England 
as now. This snow, however, did not lie much over a 
week before it was entirely melted away. 

[T.I. p. 158.] 
Hvad formon en AngelskBonde vidsit landtbruk 

har framfor en Svensk. 

What advantages an English farmer lias over a Swedish one, 

in his farming operations. 

It is well-known that the winters in England can in 



WOODFORD. I33 

no way be compared with our Swedish ones. I here 
refer especially to the southern parts and around London, 
for farther north in England also, they are sharper. 
The snow seldom lies more than two or three days on 
the ground. Cows, horses, sheep and other animals here 
go out the whole winter, and feed on the grass which 
stands green and flourishing the whole year through. 
There is no month in the year in which they cannot 
plough and sow the fields. November, December, 
January, February and March are seldom so cold 
that any frost, tjala, could prevent them from tilling 
the ground, for which reason also there are found 
set forth in English agricultural books what ploughing 
and duties in the fields, akersyslor, they have to 
perform in each of these months. There is no one here 
who knows what a sled, slade, is ; because the snow 
seldom lies so long that anyone would be able to use 
one. Sledge, which Lexicographi make in English the 
same as slada in Swedish, is nothing but a slapa. 
How it is farther north, I leave there.* The winter 
comes here very late and goes away very early, if at 
least I can call it winter, for the English winters are 
commonly such as September in Osterbotten and 
October in Stockholm. From such a climate and so 
mild winters an English farmer or Landtman derives 
many advantages, which a Swedish Bonde, does not 
enjoy. An English farmer escapes the greater part of 
our winter charges, Vinter-korslor. The mild winters 
enable him to use sticks instead of logs for fuel, Ris 
i stallet for ved til bransle, and make it unnecessary 
for him to [T. I. p. 159] employ a great part of the 
winter in sawing up wood, til veds korning. His 



* The Sled is used on the Pennine Chain, For a sketch of one form see 
Studies in Nidderdale" Glossary, s.v. [J, L ] 



134 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

fuel is from his hedges, which are commonly not far 
from the farm, but can be carried or carted home as 
it is required. He never need waste any time in hewing, 
sawing, and splitting wooden fences, gardsel, and 
carrying home of staves, samt stafvars hemforning, 
because he has around his fields living fences, lefvande 
gardes gar dar, which so far from rotting away, soon 
grow up where they are properly managed, and thus 
furnish him yearly with sufficient fuel not only for his 
own behoof, but also to sell to others. The houses 
which are built of brick, sten, free him from sawing 
timbers ; and roofs of tiles, which never rot, from cutting 
and carrying home rolls of birch bark, roof trees, roof 
boards, and shingles. The earth, bare of snow and 
verdant through the whole winter, which gives the 
cattle for the most part sufficient food, fodo, makes it 
unnecessary for him to gather nearly so much hay and 
fodder, foder, as a Swedish Bonde must do, if he 
will succeed in other ways. Also there is the great 
advantage that he can plough and till the earth when 
he will, and it is convenient, without being obliged to 
bustle and hasten as in Sweden, where all the labours 
of fetching food for man and beast come, as it were, 
at the same time ; and to get to feed sheep on the 
turnip land with turnips the whole winter time ; to 
escape having to build houses for cattle and sheep ; to 
have vegetables out of the kitchen garden the greater 
part of the year ; most of all, never to need to fear that 
he will suffer harm to his cattle from wolves and bears, 
Vargar och Bjornar, which do not exist there. 

The 12th March, 1748. 

Hackar i Tragardar. Hedges are used in gardens 
of different [T. I. p. 160] kinds of trees, which partly 
grow wild in England, or have been imported from 



WOODFORD. I35 

other places, but are now so acclimatised, that they 
are able to stand out the whole year, and endure the 
winter well. Mr. Warner did not himself know whether 
any American leaf trees were used anywhere in England 
as hedges, or whether any other American trees were 
so employed. I will divide the trees used in hedges into 
two divisons viz. : 

Tran til hackar, som altid hafva grona lof. 

Trees in hedges which always have green leaves. 

Taxus (Linn. Fl. Sv. 825) is much used in this 
place, admits of being clipped, and looks very pretty. 
I did not see so many hedges in gardens of any tree 
as of this, which, besides that, was clipped in pyramids 
and a hundred other forms. [Yew. Taxus baccata.] 

Ilex [I. Aquifolium] holly. A great many varieties 
of this are used, both with and without spines, taggar, 
also foliis ex albo variegatis, and several others. One 
could make hedges of this 12 feet high and more. A 
hedge of this is one of the most beautiful one could 
ever wish to see, and it were to be desired that this 
tree would stand our winters. 

Ulex. [U. Europaeus] furze. As this flowers mostly 
the whole year, it is, with its beautiful yellow flowers, 
very handsome. 

Padus. [Prunus Padus], bird-cherry. This occurs in 
nearly all gardens. In some places it was used as a 
hedge, which was very beautiful. 

[T. I. p. 161.] Viburnum, Linn. H.U. 62,2, Tinus, 
Clas. Lauro-tinus vulgo, [Laurustinus] is used in some 
places for hedges, but they are not particularly well 
adapted for that purpose. See Miller's Gardeners' 
Dictionary. 

Phillyrea. Nearly all sorts have been used for 
hedges, but when hard winters occur they perish; besides 



I36 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

other inconveniences. [There are three species, natives 
of Southern Europe, Italy, Spain, Turt. v. 32, 1806.] 

Quercus (Linn. Hort. Cliff 448, 2). Ilex, C.B. 
[Q. Ilex L.], together with several varieties of it, was 
used here for hedges round the "Wildernesses" or "Laby- 
rinths," and mazes, irrgangar, and other " quarters." 
These hedges were very thick, well admitted of being 
clipped, and looked very beautiful. 

Mespilus spinosa, Linn. H.C. 189, 2, Pyracantha,T. B. 
[Mespilus Pyracantha, L. 1770, II. 343], now M. Ger- 
manica, was used in many places for hedges, and looked 
very pretty. Especially they had planted it against the 
brick walls of houses on the sides facing the roads, where 
it climbed up the wall and, with its green leaves, the 
whole year through, made the walls very pretty. 

Buxus arborescens, C. B. [B. Sempervirens, L.], was 
used in different places for hedges in, as well as round, 
gardens and ordinary crofts, sa uti, som omkring 
tragardar och ordinaira gardar, clips well, and 
made one of the thickest and most beautiful hedges. 

Tran til hackar som hvar Host falla sin lof. 

Trees in hedges which shed their leaves every autumn, 

Ulmus, 219. Aim, elm [U. Campestris], was 
enough used for hedges, and grew to a considerable 
height. They had two sorts of this tree, in particular, 
one which grew [T. I. p. 162] very high and was used 
for hedges on some sides of the gardens to ward off the 
blast, and one which was less, and which was used for 
smaller hedges. 

TiLiA, 432. Lind, lime [T. Europsea], and other 
varieties of it, was used in the same kind of places as the 
Elm, and grew high enough. 

Carpinus, 786 [C Betulus], Hornbeam, was some- 
times very much used for hedges in gardens. It was 



WOODFORD. 137 

mostly clipped off, so that it did not get to grow higher 
than about 4 feet high. 

Rosa Sylv. foliis odoratis, C. B. [R. rubiginosa], "The 
Sweet Briar, or Eglantine,'" was enough used for hedges, 
looked very pretty and thick, when it was green and full 
of leaves. 

Malus, Appletrad, Appletrees, of different kinds. 
These did not form ordinary hedges, but were used in 
that form which is called Espaliers, which, however, 
perform the same service as a hedge. 

Cratcegus [C. Oxyacantha], Hagtorn, Hawthorn, 
was used in many places for hedges in orchards and 
kitchen gardens, but especially around small vege- 
table gardens, and sometimes round the front garden, 
innangarden, because it grew very thick, was thorny, 
and could be made very beautiful by clipping. 

Corylus, Hassel, Hazel, was used in many places for 
hedges. 

Prunus Sylvestris, C.B. [P. Spinosa, L.], Slan, 
Sloe, was used in many places for hedges, but mostly 
around vegetable gardens, Koks-krydd-garden, and 
the main building, Mangarden, in the same way as 
hawthorn. 

Ribes, 195, Gooseberry-bushes [R. Grossularia], 
Krusbars-buskar, were used in some [T. I. p. 163] 
places in gardens, as hedges, and were both beautiful 
and useful. [Banks MS., R. Uva Crispa.] 

Sambucus, 250, Flader, Elder, was used very much 
for hedges round the vegetable gardens near London. 

The 13th March, 1748. 

Stenkols-nytta, &c. 

The use of Coal, &c. The fuel which is exclusively 
used in London is coal, Sten-kol. In the villages which 
lay nearest around London, coal was also the principal 



13^ KALM'S ENGLAND. 

fuel, although there also they spun it out with sticks, 
risqvistar, cut in the hedges. But a couple of Swedish 
miles, or about 14 English miles from London, and in 
places to which they had noc any flowing water to carry 
up boats loaded with coals, for the most part bare wood 
was used, either from the trees they had cut down in re- 
pairing hedges, or from dug-up tree-roots, or fuel of some 
other kind, as brackens, Ormbunkar, furze, &c. Tin 
and silver-gildings soon took a black colour from the 
coal smoke, if they were not often scoured or cleaned. 
Statues of former kings, such as those of King Charles I., 
King Charles II., King James II., looked just as if the 
image of a nigger or of a crossing -sweeper, en Morians 
eller Korstens-fajares bild, had been set up, only in 
royal costume. 

When the snow had lain a couple of days on the roofs, 
it began to acquire a black colour. The houses were all 
either blackish or grey from the coal smoke. To a foreigner, 
and one unused to it, this coal-smoke w r as very annoying, 
besvarlig, for it affected the chest excessively, especially 
at night. I found in my own case that however free I 
was from cough when I now and again went into London 
from the country, I got [T. I. p. 164] one always as soon 
as I had been there a day, which never failed to be the 
case, even farther on in the summer when the air was warm, 
and there were not large fires in the town ; but as soon 
as I left London, and had been two days out in the 
country, I lost my cough. All who lived far out in the 
country, and were not accustomed to coal-smoke, even 
native Englishmen, had the same tale whenever they 
came up to London on their business. But when any- 
one had been for a time in London he no longer had so 
very manifest a sensation of it. Nevertheless, I am not 
altogether indisposed to believe that this great coal-smoke 
is even one of the reasons that cause so many in England 



WOODFORD. 139 

to be troubled with lung disease and Hectique (con- 
sumption). 

Coal-ashes mixed with clay, of which bricks, Tegel, 
are made, will make the brick or tile much stronger and 
firmer than the clay by itself. 

The same ash carried on to ploughed clay-lands, ler- 
grund akrar, makes a matchless manure. Farmers, 
Landtman, who live many miles from London, buy it 
and carry it home a long way to manure their arable 
with it. In gardens it is said also to be very good and of 
the greatest possible service. 

The 14-th March, 1748. 

Agrifolium (Ray Syn. 466). Holly is a tree which 
especially occurs in the woods in England, and with its 
evergreen leaves makes them beautiful even in mid- 
winter. The wood is used for toys for children, also for 
knife-handles, because it is hard. Coachmen's whip- 
handles, Kuskarnas piske-skaft, are made mostly of 
this wood ; for it is at the same time flexible. The prin- 
cipal use which they make of this tree is for hedges, 
which are both thick and beautiful, and last almost for 
ever. Mr. Warner told me he knew a person whose 
father, [T. I. p. 165] sixty or more years ago, had had 
all the hedges round his property planted with this tree, 
which hedges are still, at the present time, so thick that 
a dog cannot get through them. A holly-hedge has be- 
fore all others the palm in this, that it retains its green 
and beautiful leaves both winter and summer, and is thus 
a good shelter for sheep and other cattle against blasts 
and bad weather. Bird-lime is made from the bark. In 
woodless districts it is also used for fuel. 

The 15th March, 1748. 

Faren. Sheep in England seem almost to be more 



I4O KALM'S ENGLAND. 

hardened, hardade, to stand bad weather than ours in 
Sweden. The whole of this season there were showers 
of sleet, snoglopp, or snow mixed with rain every day. 
The thermometer of Celsius stood also sometimes in the 
open air as low as 3 below o [26*6° Fahr.] To this I 
can add that the same thermometer in the room where I 
slept, lag, which had no fire in it, stood nearly all day 
yesterday i° below o [30*2° F.] and this morning at 
7 o'clock, 2 below o [28*4° F.], from which it may be 
imagined how cold it must have been out in the open 
country, pa fria faltet. None the less for that, and 
although the snow now covered the ground to a depth of 
nearly 4 inches, the sheep went night and day out in thein- 
closures or the small fenced pastures, ute i tackterna, 
eller de sma instangde betesmarker, under the 
open sky without having any house or shelter, hus eller 
skjul, to go under. I except small lambs and their 
mothers, who were let under cover. The sheep had this 
advantage, that the snow seldom lay the whole day over 
all the ground, but one place and another soon became 
bare, where they could seek their food. The quantity of 
wool they now had on them seemed also to be able to 
protect them tolerably well from the cold. [T. I. p. 166.] 
Here they had freedom to run night and day about the 
pastures, but in very many places it is also the practice 
to drive the sheep in the daytime either on to the arable 
fields, meadows, or pastures, to bait ; but every night 
they are set in folds on some arable piece, where they 
not only by their droppings manure the field, but also 
come to stand in the fold quite close beside each other, 
because the fold was expressly made so narrow that they 
thus might warm each other. After a couple of days, 
just about, the fold was changed to another place, so that 
all the field might be equally manured. 

[Kalm was in London 16-20 March.] 



WOODFORD. I4I 

[T. I. p. 173.] The 20th of March. 
In the morning I went out to Woodford. Spartium 
589, [S. Scoparium] called by Englishmen Broom, grew 
in abundance on high-lying pastures, where the soil con- 
sisted of a coarse sand, en grof-sand. [The Bagshot 
Sand.] Almost all the brooms, qvastar, which were 
used, out in the country, to sweep houses with, were 
made of it. When it was fresh, it had a peculiar and 
particularly agreeable scent. According to Mr. Warner, 
this is used by some brewers instead of hops, when the 
beer, drickat, which is brewed with it, becomes very 
strong, and soon makes those who drink it drunk. 

The 2 1st March, 1748. 

Stenvaltar. Stone Rollers, were much used here in 
gardens and kitchen gardens. The stone itself consisted 
of a kind of white limestone or coarse species of marble, 
Marmor, but the rest of the machine, by which it was 
drawn, was mostly of iron. There were several sizes, 
according to what one wished to use them for. One of 
those which lay in Mr. Warner's garden was 2 feet 3 
inches long ; diameter 21 inches. [T. I. p. 174.] Some 
others in the same garden were smaller. They were used 
to draw along the paths in the gardens, which in this 
district were strown with gravel and coarse sand, grus 
OCh grof sand, so as by that means to press down the 
lumps in the gravel and make the path even and flat. 
This was done several times in the summer according as 
the earth in the paths from various causes, such as worms, 
burrowing, &c, puffed up. For levelling lawns, gras- 
vallens, or grass, they did not use stone-rollers, but only 
wooden rollers, travaltar. 

Rokor. Rooks in numbers, injurious to arable fields, 
and how they are exterminated. In all the villages, byar, 
in this district there was a frightful number of a kind of 



I42 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

crow called by zoologists Comix frugilega, and by the in- 
habitants of the island of Oland off the coast of Sweden, 
Roka. (See Linn. Fauna Svecica). They had built their 
nests up in the highests summits, skatan, of elms, oaks, 
and other lofty leaf trees, where no one could get at 
them. There were often seen in a single tree ten, twelve, 
sixteen, twenty, and more such nests, bon, all made this 
year. There was therefore constantly, but especially in 
the mornings early such screeching, skrik, in these 
trees that one could scarcely hear what another person 
said if they were standing near the trees. These birds, 
Kreatur, did the " farmers " or agriculturist, Landt- 
mannen, an incredible amount of harm, for as soon as 
wheat, barley, oats, pease, or, in a word, whatever kind 
of crop there might be was sown, they covered the fields 
and plucked up, plackade up, as much as they could 
get at. When the pease were sown, which was nearly 
all done by the drill, or in rows, and began to peep up, 
there were the rooks collected in large numbers. They 
began to follow along the rows [T. I. p. 175] in which 
the pease were sown, and pulled up, ryckte up, all they 
could find, so that not many of the peas were left. I 
saw a farmer who had this spring sown a large field with 
pease which were so entirely destroyed by these destruc- 
tive birds that he was obliged to plough it up and sow it 
again with oats, because scarcely a single pea was left 
remaining. Scare-crows, Fogel-scramslor, were set 
up in the fields, but could not frighten them, kunde 
icke injaga nagon raddhoga i dem. Many might 
think because they always had their nests in trees near 
villages, that it was not difficult either to shoot them 
there dead, up in the trees, or to destroy their nests, or to 
climb up in the trees and poke down their nests with long 
poles, or in some other way to prevent their increasing in 
numbers. To this it is answered : " Certainly, sir, if one 



WOODFORD. 143 

had leave to do it ; " but as the rooks have commonly 
been so sly, sluga, as to build their nests in such trees 
as stood in front of, Utanfor, gentlemen's and noble- 
men's houses, and belong to them, they were free from 
all attacks of enemies ; because it was very seldom that 
any gentleman allowed anyone to shoot or molest them in 
his trees, but seemed to consider himself entitled, as it 
were, to shelter them, because they had taken refuge with 
him, and, as it were, solicited his protection. A gentle- 
man could so much the more lightly do this, because here 
in England they hardly ever cultivate their fields or landed 
estates, landtgods, themselves, but let them out to 
farmers and live on the money flowing in from their 
tenants. The farmers it is true destroy these rooks, 
Rakor, by shooting them, when they meet them in the 
fields ; or they also take Nux Vomica, Raf kakor, boiled 
in water, soak the seed or peas which are to be sown in 
it, and then sow them. When the rooks eat them they 
become intoxicated |_T. I. p. 176], so that directly they 
fly up they fall down again, and either die, or are killed 
by the farmer's folk, without any mercy. 

The seed is said not to take any harm from this steep- 
ing. In the trees near the farmers' houses no such nests 
are seen. 

The 23rd March, 1748. 

In the morning I went into London, and came back 
to Woodford in the afternoon, the same day. 

They know how to make use of the dirt on the roads, 
in England. 

I saw everywhere in London, as well as in the larger 
villages between Woodford and London, carts only made 
for the purpose of carrying away the dirt which from 
many causes, such as folk, horses, and cattle collects in 
the roads. 

Such sweepings and other refuse as in London are 



144 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

collected in the houses, are cast out into the street by 
the servants, where they are afterwards shovelled to- 
gether in heaps, and laid in the dung-wagons to be 
carried out of the town to some particular place where 
they are shot. Such a wagon or cart as is used for 
cleaning the town has the advantage, that it does not 
drive out of the way of anyone it may happen to meet 
in the street. When farmers and others convey anything 
into the town to be sold, they seldom drive with an 
empty load home, but they mostly take a wagon full of 
this manure out with them from the places where it is 
collected together. Some of these places are such, that 
the ground on which the dirt is laid belongs to one person 
who lets it out to another, who does not allow anyone to 
take a load from it, who does not pay a certain price 
for it. 

[T. I. p. 177.] Other places again are of this descrip- 
tion, that anyone has freedom to take the dirt from them 
without paying anything for it. For this reason farmers 
who live not far from London, do not take the trouble to 
seek after Marie and other manures on their own properties 
because they have such a good opportunity for providing 
themselves with excellent manure from London. Those 
who sell this dirt are said to derive large incomes from it 
in the course of a year, and a farmer does not think much 
of paying a few pence for every load he takes on the 
return journey home in an otherwise empty wagon. 

The 2<\th March, 1748. 

Genista Spinosa vulg. Raj. Syn. 475, is called by the 
Englishmen Furze. It is used in some places here in 
the country for hedges round the arable fields, meadows, 
&c, but this is not so very common. The reason why 
it is so little used for this purpose is said to be principally 
that when it has stood three or four years the lowest 



WOODFORD. I45 

twigs begin to wither, dry up, and fall off, through which 
the hedge becomes thin at the bottom, so that small 
animals can creep through it. This can nevertheless, be 
remedied by sowing some furze seeds every year under the 
hedge. Also, if the twigs are cut off, or the stalks them- 
selves down at the bottom, then it strikes out new and 
fresh shoots, otherwise it is much used for hedges in 
gardens. The use of this bush, besides this, is that in this 
woodless district it is much used for fuel, whence it happens 
that it has seldom got to grow to any height. Otherwise 
it thrives well, so that where it has once taken hold, 
fatt faste, it is not so easy to eradicate. The farmers, 
Bonderna, sometimes have great trouble in effecting 
this, where it has got to insinuate itself [T.I. p. 178.] 
sufficiently into the fields. The twigs are much used to 
light fires with, because they have the same qualities as 
Juniper-twigs, or straw, viz., that they flare up, and 
quickly take fire, and rise up in a large and bright flame. 

In many places the walls of outhouses and sheds 
Uthus OCh liders-vaggar, were made of it in this 
way, that the roof of the shed, lider-taket, stood on 
posts ; between each post there were staves, storar, 
erected, % one foot or a little more apart; between 
these the furze was wreathed in the same way as the 
sprays in a kol-skrinda, or coal-sled, are plaited in 
serpentine folds. Sheep eat these shoots when they 
have newly run up, but they do so only from hunger, and 
for want of other better food. Rabbits eat it very much. 
It is a pity that it will not stand our climate. Who knows, 
however, whether it might not be able to grow down in 
Skane? [N. Lilja. Skdnes Flora, 1869, p. 512 "Sand 
Gultome (Ulex. Europceus Linn) .... Cultivated, 
very rare, Torup, Alnarp, Broby." J. L.] 

[Kalm was at Little Gaddesden from March 25th to 
April 15th, 1748.] 



I46 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 340.] The 15th April, 1748. 

We left Little Gaddesden in the morning and 
travelled this day, first to St. Alban's, and afterwards 
to Colney, situated three miles the other side of St. 
Alban's. 

A couple of miles after we left Little Gaddesden, we 
came to Great Gaddesden, which is a Parish, but has not 
so many farms and houses as Little Gaddesden, which 
contradicts its name, for Little Gaddesden means 
"Lilla G.," and Great Gaddesden means " Stora G." 
Perhaps it may have been larger in former times.* 

Prospecten af landet. 

Between Little Gaddesden and St. Alban's the country 
was a continuous series of hills and dales. It much 
resembled the country between Tveer and Moscow, but 
still more between Moscow and Toulou, Tula, in Russia. 

The hills were high, and consisted of chalk, but the 
highest crust of the often before-mentioned tegel- 
fargade jorden eller leran, brick-colored earth or 
clay. These hills, hogder, commonly ran from N.N.W. 
to S.S.E., and sometimes from N. to S., although they 
also often had some other direction. The sides of these 
hills were mostly langslutte, long sloping, yet in some 
places somewhat steeper. All the country was divided into 
inclosures in the same way as has been described at Little 
Gaddesden [p. 210 orig.~] and in many other places. These 
inclosures were surrounded with hedges of the same 
description. 

Beautiful houses appeared here and there. Husen 
bygde af sten, murade emellan kor'sverke af 
tra. "Brick and Stud" houses, or houses built of brick, 



* There are a large number of Roman bricks built into the east-end of Great 
Gaddesden Church. The area of G. Gaddesden par. is 4, 149- 29 acres, and 
that of L. G.par. only 925-497 acres. [J. L.] 



WOODFORD. 147 

walled up between crossbeams of wood, which went both 
ad angulos rectos et acutos. Some houses were roofed, 
tackte, with flat tiles, but most with straw in the way 
which has been described above at several places here 
in Hertfordshire. Some [T. I. p. 341.] outhouses had 
walls of oak boards. Around the farms, all sorts of fruit 
trees were planted, such as apple-tree, pear-tree, cherry- 
tree, walnut-tree, &c, of different kinds, while in some 
places some of them stood in the hedges round the 
inclosures, so that the houses here were mostly situated 
in orchards of fruit trees, 16f-lundar af frukt tran. 
On the hill-sides and hills there lay either arable fields, 
meadows, or pastures. In a word, the country here 
everywhere resembled a charming and well-arranged 
garden. 

Harvar at rifva bart massan pa angar med, &c. 

Harrows to tear away mosses from meadows with, &c. 

On a gentleman's estate, there lay a couple of such 
Pall-grindar, or hurdles, as have been described [on 
p. 262 orig.~], between whose tran och spolar, staves 
and rods, on the under side were inserted and interwoven 
a number of slan-gristar, sloe-twigs, so that they were 
held quite fast. With these harrows thus arranged they 
drove along the moss-grown meadows, when the thorns 
and the sharp twigs of the sloe tore up the moss in the 
field and swept it away with them. In like manner 
these harrows were used for this, that when the manure 
was spread over the grass-sward of the meadows they 
drove these harrows over the fields, by which means the 
dung and earth were torn asunder and reduced to pieces 
by the sloe-branches. 

Tra rotter til bransle. Tree roots as fuel. 

On the same estate there lay several heaps 12 feet 
high and 5 or 6 fathoms long and wide at the base, 



140 KALM S ENGLAND. 

which all consisted of dug-up roots of beech, oak, ash, 
&c, which were now mostly cut up to be used at the 
house for fuel instead of other wood, ved. Thus they 
knew in this district how to make use of every bit of a 
tree, and to be careful of the wood. 

[T. I. p. 342.] Hopgyttrade flintstenar. 

Conglomerated flint-pebbles. Puddingstone. 
For the most part, at all the farmhouses there were 
placed here and there against the corners tolerably large 
stones, such as one or two men might carry, which 
stones were only a conglomeration of quite small round, 
trinda, so-called Pebblestones, which are all a kind of small 
round smooth flint-stones. They had here been bound 
together by some fine clay, lera, which had afterwards 
become as hard as flint. I do not know where they had 
taken them from, for they did not occur on the open plain. 
In London I afterwards got to see small pieces of it, which 
were polished and made into the lids of snuff-boxes, when 
they looked like the most beautiful agates, and exhibited 
a variety of colours. 

Hurudant vatten Har brukas til kokning, etc. 

What kind of water is here used for cooking, etc. 

I have said before [p. 281 orig.~\ that a spring or 
any running water is very seldom found on the Chalk- 
hills. Therefore those who live there are obliged to 
dig large and deep ponds, dammar, in which the rain 
water can collect, and clear itself, sila sig tilhopa. 
In colour this pond-water exactly resembled such white 
and thick water, as in Sweden usually stands in clay-pits, 
lergropar, only that this, here in England, inclined a 
little to yellow, which was due* to the chalk soil, krit- 
grunden, which it stood upon. Folk avail themselves 

* This yellow tint is caused by hydrated peroxide of iron. [J. L.] 



WOODFORD. I49 

of this water, for want of any other, for cooking food, 
washing dishes, linen, etc., til mats-kokning, karils- 
twattning, bykning, etc. 

We could never perceive any unpleasantness in con- 
sequence of the food we ate which was cooked with it. 
We also saw linen-clothes, floors, &c, become quite as 
clean and as white with this as with any other water. 
This was also the cattle's drink, who likewise did well 
upon it. 

Sades-stackar pa stalpar. Ricks on props. 

We saw the whole way from Little Gaddesden to 
[T. I. p. 343] Woodford in Essex ricks at the farms 
partly of round partly of oblong shape ; part of them 
stood on pillars, part on the bare ground. In a word, 
exactly the same as have been described [pp. 229 and 
255 origJ]. Some stood on wooden posts more or less 
high, surrounded in the middle or at the upper ends 
either with polished brass or tin, others stood on stone 
posts, which were of the white freestone, which is got 
near Tatternel. They were hewn square, and quite 
smooth on all sides. The height of the pillar was 
2 feet 6 inches. On the top of the pillar was laid a square 
flagstone, hall, of the same kind of stone, whose under 
side was quite smooth and flat, and reached on every 
side 6 inches beyond the square pillar, stalpen, so that 
mice and other small injurious animals could not possibly 
climb up these posts to the stack. On the top these 
square flagstones were so hewn that they sloped down on 
all sides, so that the water ran off them at once. The 
bottom of the stack consisted of small sticks, stange, 
laid 3 to 6 inches apart. 

On these there were first laid either brackens, 
Ormbimkar, twigs of sloe, hawthorn, or dry straw, and 
afterwards the sheaves of the crop, Sades-karfvar. 



150 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Halm til godsel. Straw as manure. 
Straw of wheat, barley, oats, pease, beans, &c, 
was given to the cattle as fodder at home, and what 
they did not eat was cast into the farmyard, to be 
trampled down and turned into manure, in the same 
way as has been described above (p. 251 orig.) This we 
saw done at every farm, where we travelled in England. 

Godselns utforsel. Row the manure is carted. 

The manure which had been prepared in the above 
manner we now saw in many places, being carted on to 
the fields, and there [T. I. p. 344] laid in small loads 
or heaps. 

These carts, karror, were very large, and made in 
such a way that the body, skrafvet, could be turned 
and sloped down backwards after a cross-board at the 
back had been first taken off, when the manure slid down 
by itself, after which the body of the cart fell back into 
its former horizontal situation. Such carts are used for 
the same purpose at many places in Sweden, only that 
the English ones are far larger. 

Huru akrarna voro lagde, &c. How the fields were 
arranged, &c. 

The fields were here everywhere divided into smaller 
or larger inclosures surrounded with hedges, of all sorts 
of different kinds of trees, as has been mentioned above 
at Little Gaddesden. As the country here lay by turns 
in hills and dales, so also the situation of the arable 
fields was adjusted accordingly ; yet they commonly lay 
on the sides of the hills. 

The soil at the top of them was the brick-colored 
earth, tegel-fargade jorden, which has been described 
above at Little Gaddesden, but under that, at a greater 
or less depth, solid chalk came on nearly all the arable- 



WOODFORD 151 

fields. Hereabout lay a tremendous number of ordinary 
flints of the size of the closed fist and smaller, so 
that one could scarcely see any of the earth or soil for 
them. 

They had in some places so got the upper hand, 
that they were obliged to gather them, placka dem 
tilhopa, and lay them in heaps. The carl who accom- 
panied us assured us that the best and choicest wheat, 
barley and oats, and even turnips, grow on such very 
stony fields. These fields were now sown with wheat, 
barley, oats and peas, or they were about to be sown 
with turnip seed, not to mention, at fortiga, that a 
part of them were now left fallow, til trades-land. 
The wheat was here nearly everywhere sown in 
"stitches" ov" four thorough land." [T. I. p. 345.] The 
breadth of such a stitche was just a Swedish ell, or 2 
English feet. The breadth of the water furrows which 
lay between the stitches, was, at the top 18 inches the depth 
6 to 9 inches At some few places wheat was sown in 
broadland, there, for instance, where the land seemed 
to be very dry. Pease were here nearly everywhere 
sown in the recently named stitches, with the exception 
of some single place where they were sown in broad- 
land, which last-named was everywhere used near Little 
Gaddesden. 

Barley, oats, turnips, clover, St. Foin, vetches, &c, 
were all sown in broad- land. The wheat stood beautiful, 
barley and pease had already come up. 

Clover, Sain Foin, Ray-grass, sown as fodder for cattle. 

In some places the inclosures were sown with clover, 
Trifolium purp. sativ, in other places with Sain Foin, or 
also with Sain Foin and clover together. In other places with 
clover and Ray-grass together, or also with Ray-grass only, 
(med bara R.) " Ray -grass " or " Rey-grass " [rye-grass] is 



152 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Lolium radice permni. Linn. 104 \holium perenne]. These 
plants now stood everywhere very beautiful. The carl 
who accompanied us said that when clover and ray-grass 
are sown together, the ray-grass prevents the cows 
from swelling or bursting, when they eat too much of 
the too satisfying clover.* 

Mr. Williams at Little Gaddesden said that the same 
effect is produced if clover and trefoil (Medicago legumini- 
bus reniformibus, Linn. 621) [M. lupulina] are sown 
together. 

In some places where they had last year cut clover, 
the 'stub' or 'haulm,' stubben eller halmen, which 
they had left remaining was now collected and laid in heaps 
to be carried home and laid among [T. I. p. 346] other 
straw in the farm yard, to rot together to manure. If 
this dry stub was left to stand on the ground it would 
hinder the growth of the new clover. 

Krit-grop Strata in a chalk-pit. On the S.W. side 
of a hill in a field there was a large chalkpit where they 
had taken chalk, to be carried out on to the fields for 
manure. Here the sides were not of bare chalk, without 
beds of another kind of rock but the strata lay in the 
following order : — 

Ft. ins. 

1. On the top, the brick-colored earth, tegel- 

fargade jorden, sometimes 1 foot, 
sometimes 2 feet thick ; for in some 
places this stratum was more, in other 
places less thick 1 o 

2. Chalk, krita, with which flints, flint-stenar, 

were mixed here and there 1 o 

3. The brick-colored earth, 2 or 3 inches o 3 



* "They have lately sown Ray grass, Grarnen loh'aceum, to improve 
cold, sour, clayey weeping ground, unfit for Saint Foin." Plot. Nat. flist. 
of Oxfordshire. 167*]. Fol. [J. L.] 



WOODFORD. 153 



ins. 



Ft. 

4. Chalk with a little flint, Plinta 1 6 

5. The brick-colored earth o oj 

6. Chalk with a multitude of flintstones in it ... 4 o 

7. The brick-colored earth \ inch to 1 inch 1 inch 

to 2 inches o 2 

For in some places it was thicker than 
in others. 

8. The hard chalk which is here called " Hur- 

lock " right down to the bottom or 1 ell, 
for how this was afterwards I could not see, 
because the fallen earth and chalk prevented 
that 2 o 



11 o\ 

The narrow Strata of the brick-colored earth or clay 
tegelfargade jorden eller leran went sometimes in 
long curves, bukter, upwards, sometimes downwards. 
It was remarkable that the lowest stratum of all, or 
No. 8, was Hurlock wherein there was scarcely a single 
flint, flintsteil, which however were tolerably abundant 
among the chalkbeds. [T. I. p. 347.] The carl who 
accompanied us said that Hurlock is the best to burn lime 
of, and that such good lime does not come from pure 
and loose chalk. Some of the flints in the chalk 
resemble spigots or goats horns. Might I not have got 
to see freestone underneath this, such as there was at 
Tatternel if the pit had been some fathoms deeper ?* 

* This question may be answered definitely. The bed (No. 8) here so 
well described by Kalm, as to make it easily recognisable, is the top of the 
"Chalk Rock" beds of Mr. W. Whitaker, which lie at the base of the 
Upper Chalk and on the top of the Middle Chalk, to which as a whole I have 
repeatedly heard the name of " Hurlock " applied on the area between Trin% 
and Dunstable. 

The thickness from the "Chalk- rock" of Whitaker to the freestone of 
Tatternel or Totternhoe is 310 feet. 

[continued over. 



154 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Hedera ates af Par och ar en prydnad vid gardar. 

Ivy is eaten by sheep, and is an ornament on houses. 
The carl who accompanied us told us that sheep 
willingly eat the leaves of ivy. I had the same story from 
another afterwards. At St. Alban's, where we dined, this 
had climbed up the plank fences of some gardens, and 
covered them, so that at a distance they looked like 
green-clipped hedges. 

Kallor. 

In the dales we saw here and there springs of 
running and clear water. [Only the Gade at and below 
Great Gaddesden, and the Ver at St. Alban's.] 
Tattare. Gypsies. 

We encountered to-day at several places large 
troops of the wandering gypsies, with a number of their 
wives and children, and wondered highly that this useless 
folk could be tolerated in this country.* 

' : There is often a layer of flints resting at once on the : Chalk-rock,' but 
there are no flints in it." See Mems of the Geol Survey of Gt. Btn. vol iv., 
p. 46, 1872, and vol. i., 1889, pp. 67-68. 

On the site of this chalk-pit I observe, pits just dug to the chalk- rock are 
scarce. As it was on the S.W. side of a hill it must have been west of Great 
Gaddesden. If Kalm rode across the fields by the path from Home Farm, 
Little Gaddesden, he would then pass two chalk-pits with the required aspect 
and depth between Little Gaddesden and St. Margaret's, and as the one on 
the 500 feet contour west of St. Margaret's touches the chalk-rock beds I 
believe it to have been this one. I am well acquainted with all the chalk-pits 
old and new, in the district. [J. L.] 

* To a Romano-phil this sounds harsh, but only two years before, or in 
1746, Jean Gordon was ducked to death in the Eden at Carlisle, a specimen 
of " toleration " that would have reduced Kalm's wonder, had he been aware 
of it. It is interesting to find this little notice of English gypsies, which I 
had not seen when I published my Yetholm History of the Gypsies, Kelso, 
1882, in which I collected hundreds of passages relating to the gypsies of 
Europe, which show how fruitless were the various barbarous means used 
for their extermination from this and other countries. See also p. 353, 
orig.\ p. 161 below. [J. L.] 



WOODFORD. 155 

Plinta til murar, vagars lagning, etc. 

Flints for walls, road-making, &c. 

In one place and another we saw walls of arable fields 
built of flints only, af bara flinta. In some places a 
great part of the church walls were built of them. Out- 
side St. Alban's some carls were engaged in digging deep 
ditches by the road side. Their depth was 3 'feet 6 inches. 
Where these ditches were on the hills, there were a great 
many large flints among the earth cast up from them, 
some of them so large that one carl was scarcely able to 
lift more than one of them. They were afterwards carried 
out on to the roads to fill up the [T. I. p. 348] deep holes 
made by their large and heavy cart and wagon-wheels. 

In other places where the ground was more even and 
not in hills, small Pebblestones were dug up, which were 
sma rundaktiga kiselstenar af bara flinta, small 
round pebbles of flint, which also were carried out on to 
the roads. Together with these Pebblestones there was 
also dug up here a quantity of brick-colored grus or 
gravel, which was afterwards screened, sallades, from 
the pebbles, to be used on paths in pleasure gardens and 
kitchen gardens. In some of these places where the 
ground was even, and not in hills, the soil, right down to 
the bottom of the ditch, consisted of the aforenamed 
brick-colored gravel, with clay amongst it, med lera 
deribland, and an abundance of Pebblestones. In other 
places also, on the hills, there was on the top the brick- 
colored earth, 3 or 4 feet, and chalk under it, in which 
was found abundance of flint. 

Kyrko-torns skapnad, m. m. Church-towers' shapes, etc. 

The church-towers here in England, especially in the 
country, were commonly such, that they did not taper 
off at the top in a spire, spira eller spits, but resembled 



156 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

a cut-off parallelogram, so that, when the four square walls 
of the tower were finished, the tower also was commonly 
complete, only that the sides on the top resembled old 
town walls, gamla stads-murar, alias, that on the 
top of the walls there was left a row of spaces on all the 
sides, the same breadth as the brickwork that was con- 
tinued upwards between the openings.* In the middle, 
or towards one side of this tower a thin pole was erected, 
on which, on certain occasions a flag was hoisted, either 
of one colour or another. To-day we saw flags hoisted 
on all the church towers in St. Alban's, some white, 
others red, some of other colours. [T. I. p. 349.] The 
reason was said to be, that it was done to celebrate the 
Duke of Cumberland's birthday, which was to-day. 

Hast hoar. Horse troughs. 

At Colney they had in one place and another horse- 
troughs, out of which the horses drank, lined with lead. I 
have also seen the same both before and since at many 
other places here in England. 

Orter begarlige for Svin. Plants Enjoyed by Swine. 

Outside Colney there went some swine and ate of the 

green plants which stood in the bank under a hedge. I 

noted that Alsine media C.B. [Stellaria Media] Chick- 

weed, was a very favorite food with them, but they did 

not trouble themselves about young nettles, Nasslor, 

of both kinds, Urtica urens minor, C.B. and Urfica Urens 

Maxima, C.B. [17. urens. L. (small nettle) and U. Dioica L. 

(great nettle) Stinging Nettles, Ger. Nessel. Hoffm. 1791 

P- 335-] 

The 16th April, 1748. 

We continued our journey from Colney, where we lay 

* Most of these brick battlements are later additions to ancient towers. 

[J. L.] 



WOODFORD. 157 

the night before, through Bell Bar, Cheshunt, Waltham 
Cross, and Waltham A bbey, till in the evening we reached 
Woodford, in Essex. 

Juncus til Saten i Stolar. Rushes for Seats of Chairs. 

In several wet places and near the water we saw enough 
of Juncus laevis panicula sparsa major C.B. which grew 
there [Juncus ejfusus L. Soft rush.~\ The carl who accom- 
panied us told us that chair-bottoms are made of this, 
when it is either plaited in three or twisted with two 
stems. Poor folk make their living by it.* 

A 

Akrarnas belagenhet och lage. 

The situation and condition of certain arable fields. 

We saw at one place a ploughed field, which lay 
quite flat. The soil was a grey clay, Jordmon var 
en gra lera. No flints or very few [T. I. p. 350] 
appeared on it, a fact which we afterwards noticed on 
all the fields we saw to-day, viz. : that very few flints 
occur on them. The afore-named field had last year 
been sown with pease, when it had been laid out in 
Three-bouts-land, that is, 6 furrows in every ridge, 6 
faror i hvar ryggning. The breadth of such a 
Three-bouts-land was 4 feet 6 inches. The water furrows 
were drawn between each ridge,ry gg eller uphogning, 
and were 2 feet wide across the top. The depth of 
each and every water-furrow was 9 inches. The land 

* In the Tarring (Sussex) Church Accounts, 15 Hen. VIII., 1524, given 
in Cartwright's Western Sussex (vol. ii. of Dallaway). " It. for a lod of versys 
xvd."=" a load of rushes" so called probably because they were either 
twisted or plaited, Lat. Verso (freq. of Verto) to turn often, from side to 
side, or round about. The proper name as used by the straw-plaiters at 
Ivinghoe for the bend given to the straw in the operation of plaiting is 
"turn," e.g., " We put in a speel at every 12th turn." Ivinghoe, Sept. 21st., 
1886. [J. L.] 



158 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

was wet. At the ends there were water-furrows to lead 
off the water. For this summer this was left to lie 
fallow, and would be sown with wheat in the following 
autumn. Farther up in the same field where the soil 
was drier, the field was laid out in Ten-bouts-land, or so 
that each ridge, ryggning, consisted of 20 furrows. 
The breadth of such a land was 11 feet (5^ aln.). They 
were highest in the middle and sloped on both sides. 

Svalor. Swallows appeared to-day for the first 
time this year. 

Kaniner deras hemvist &c. Rabbits, their 
dwellings, &c. 

We came before dinner, middagen, to a plain, 
slatt, which was very much overgrown with brackens 
Ormbunkar. It was nearly surrounded by ploughed 
fields. On this warren, fait, which was fenced round 
with planks, plankor, we saw a great many rabbits, 
of a grey colour, which had their residence here. The 
ground was quite full of the holes which they had dug, 
and into which they ran down, as soon as one came 
somewhat near them. They were said all to belong to 
a gentleman, who lived not far from thence. In one place 
and another there were traps, fallor, set to catch them. 
These traps exactly resemble a kind of traps which are 
set for large rats. [T. I. p. 351.] They are knocked 
together of four boards, like a long box, lada. At each 
end hangs a perpendicular board, like a door, which by 
a specially contrived arrangement above the trap, 
resembled a brunns hink, or hatch of a stream, and 
can be hoisted up so that the entrance to the trap stands 
open. In the middle of the trap, an iron pin or a little 
wooden rod goes cross-wise, and as soon as the rabbit 
climbs on to this and presses it down, a pin on the 



WOODFORD. 159 

outside slips loose and the boards at both ends fall 
down, and the rabbits are thus shut in. Branches, 
Armar, made of small sprays, spratar, go out from 
these traps on four sides, as in a Ryssja, Kipe, or 
"fish-trap "* to lead the rabbits in. 

In the fence itself which separates the fields from this 
inclosure, there were also such traps, but only open 
at the end which turned towards the arable fields and 
nailed up at the other end towards 1 the plain, slatten, 
where the rabbits were. It thus seemed that the owner 
of the arable field was at liberty to catch all rabbits 
which were in his field and wished to go out of it, but 
had not leave to take any if one should go from the 
warren into the fields. We saw afterwards the same 
day at two other places, the one between Bell Bar and 
Cheshunt, the other between Waltham A bbey and Woodford, 
such places, on the open ground, where rabbits were 
kept, and where there were similar traps to catch them 
with. At the former place they had their dwelling in 
the side of a bank, where the owner had had several 
longitudinal and transverse ditches dug, of 3 feet deep, 
to lead off the water which came running down from 
the bank above, and prevented it from thus trickling to 
the place where the rabbits had their holes, but that 
the ground might be dry for them. We saw them 
run there by thousands. They had dragged brackens 
down into their holes. No [T. I. p. 352] other food 
was given them, than what they themselves could find 
on the ground. The owner seemed in consequence to 
have a considerable profit from the ground he let out 
as a rabbit warren. 



* A long round tapering wicker-basket, called " fish-coop ; ' on the 
Humber, "kipe" in Oxfordshire, "put," "putch," or "cype," on the Severn, 
formerly "•cyt," '• kydel." [J. L.] 



l6o KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Harliga bygningar. Beautiful houses. 
A great number of handsome large houses made a 
show everywhere in the woods, through which we 
travelled, the whole of this day. Nature and Art 
seemed here to have united to make this country charm- 
ing and delightful. 

The ijth April, 1748. 
Kail Var. Cold Spring. 

Our host, a man of seventy years old, told us 
that he could not remember a cold wind, and what 
is more, so much snow, lasting so far on in the spring 
as it has this year, for it snowed — indeed, very heavily 
— the greater part of this day. All the others with whom 
I spoke about this had the same tale. The leaves of 
the trees were now first beginning to shoot out. Haw- 
thorns and dog roses, Hagtorn OCh Tdrne, were those 
which were most advanced in this respect, but on the 
others there scarcely appeared more than the incipient 
buds, while, commonly, all trees are said to stand at this 
time with large leaves. 

The 18th April, 1748. 

In the morning I went into London and returned in 
the evening. 

Asnors nytta. The use of Asses. 

These animals are used by several people in this 
country. They were commonly quite as small as year- 
old foals. The principal reason why they keep them is 
said to be that those who have lung disease, Lung-SOt, 
or Hectique, might have the opportunity of drinking 
asses' milk, because the Medici [T. I. p. 353] in this place 
prescribe it as the surest and best medicine for these 
distressing passions. It is also for this reason that large 
troops of donkeys are seen, particularly in the district, 



WOODFORD. l6l 

pa falten, round about London. Besides that, donkeys 
are used hereabouts to carry burdens. In particular, 
bakers, who send round their men to sell bread, use 
donkeys to carry the bread-baskets, when a large 
basket commonly hangs, sitter, on each side of the 
saddle. The gypsies, Tattare, who roam about this 
country, use only donkeys instead of horses to carry their 
children and baggage. [See also p. 347, orig.] 

The igth April, 1748. 

In the morning I went with Mr. Warner and some 
English gentlemen to the places which lay immediately 
to the east of Woodford. The hedges, inclosures, houses, 
ricks, and hay-stacks, all kinds of straw for manure in 
the farm-yards, in a word, all their rural economy was 
such as that we have described at Little Gaddesden in 
Hertfordshire; but the soil was a brick-coloured clay 
mixed very much with Gravel and Pebblestones. Chalk 
does not appear here. Also the land here in Essex is 
much more affected by wet than in Hertfordshire, where 
the ground was much drier. 

En stor Ek. A large Oak. 

Mr. Warner went out with us to-day, especially to 
show us an oak tree, which he said was one of the 
thickest oaks he had seen in England. We measured 
the periphery of the trunk, stammen, four feet above 
the ground, when we found that this oak was 30 feet round. 
At 15 feet above the roots it divided itself into twelve large 
branches, and each of these twelve divided itself after- 
wards into several smaller branches. We measured its 
width from the outermost twigs on the west [T. I. p. 354] 
to the outermost twigs on the east, in this way, that we 
erected at each side a perpendicular line from the ground 
to the outermost twigs on the W. and E. sides, when we 
found that there were just 116 feet between the two 



1 62 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

lines. The oak stood in Barking parish, and a fair, 
Marknad, used formerly to be held under it. Some of 
these branches were now withered.* 

Crambe maritima til mat. Seakale as food. 

Upon my travels in 1742 in Bohusldn, I found Crambe 
Maritima Brassicoe folio, Tournef which there grew wild by 
the sea shore. I then mentioned in a Memoir (Memorial) 
of mine at Kongl. Sv. Vetenskaps Academien (the 
Royal Swedish Academy of Science), that this might do 
for food. To-day I saw that opinion of mine confirmed, 
for Mr. Warner showed me three beds in his kitchen- 
garden where this was sown only for cooking purposes. 
It was used in the following way. In the months of 
April and May it begins to shoot up new shoots, nearly 
like an Asparagus. These are cut off and prepared in the 
same way as Spinat in Sweden, when it is one of the 
best-flavoured green vegetables which anyone can wish 
for. Our midday-meal to-day was mostly made up of it. 
It is cultivated everywhere here in England by Gentlemen 
for the above-named purpose. When it is older it is not 
good to eat ; beause the leaf becomes as tough as leather. 
Its seeds are sown in April, May, June, or July, so early, that 
is, as that they may come up and acquire enough strength 
to resist the winter cold. Next spring the bed is covered 
over with gravel, grus, 4 inches thick, but it is most to 
be preferred if sand can be got from the sea-shore. In 
this [T. I. p. 355] it thrives very well. When it is two 
or three years old, one can begin to cut it, and the 
same root lasts a long time, year after year without re- 
quiring to be sown. 

* Hainault Forest was disforested in 1851. Here stood the celebrated 
Fairlop Oak on an open space still called " Fairlop plain." Its trunk 
measured 44 feet round near the ground, and its branches covered an area of 
300 feet in circumference. Fairlop Fair was held under it on the first Friday 
in July. [J.I..] 



WOODFORD. 163 

Fisk-masars nytta, etc. Use of Seagulls in Gardens. 

Mr. Warner had four seagulls, Fisk-m&sar, in his 
garden, two of which were of the common sort, and the 
two others a little larger and blacker, which he had got 
from Newfoundland, in North America, where they occur 
wild in abundance. He had had one wing of each clipped, 
so that they could not fly away. These gulls wandered 
everywhere about in the kitchen garden, and sought out 
earth-worms, met-maskar ; Erucas, caterpillars ; frogs, 
Grodor ; snails, Sniglar ; and many other little beasts 
injurious to kitchen gardens and garden plants, which 
they ate up. When the gardeners, arbets-karlarna, 
were digging up the earth at any place, they followed 
close after them, and plucked up all earth worms, and 
coarser insects which the carls in turning over the earth 
heaved up to the day. In a word, they cleared the 
garden industriously of many injurious things without in 
any way doing harm to the plants more than that they 
once and again trampled on them, which, however, did 
not matter at all. The only food which they were given 
was either pieces of raw meat or slices of wheat-loaves. 
They were so tame that even if they were at the farthest 
end of the garden, and Mr. Warner called " Gull, Gull," 
from his window, they came directly, kommo de strax, 
meaning, of course, to get something to eat. Those which 
had come from America were very savage, arga. When 
anyone ran after them they turned round [T. I. p. 356] 
to fight, at hugga emot, and if one then sprang away 
from them, they leapt or flew for some distance after 
him. 

Orsak til tufvor pa angar. 

The origin of hillocks on meadows. 

In one meadow and another I saw small hillocks of 
about a foot high, and the same diameter. When I dug into 



164 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

them I found in them some of the yellow ants, de gula 
etter-myror [Formica rubra]. I asked some English- 
men what they thought was the origin of these hillocks, 
tufvor. They answered that the first cause is the mole, 
mullvaden, which casts up the heaps ; but afterwards 
the ants, myrorna, take up their quarters in them and 
increase them. 

A 

Akrarnas lage och hafd har vid Woodford. 

The position and cultivation of the ploughed fields near 
Woodford. 

The country here round Woodford does not lie level 
like a planum, but all slopes towards the east side so 
that it has full advantage of the morning sun. All the 
other arable and grass fields situated in this part of 
Essex, slope in the same way either to the one side or 
the other. The subsoil here consists of a brick-colored 
clay dividing into cubical masses, Jordmon harstades 
bestar af en tegel-fargad i tarningar fallande 
lera, mingled with coarse sand and small Pebblestones, 
which Pebblestones are small round stones which there 
consist of ordinary flint, but other fragments of flint 
than these, such as there were on the fields in Hert- 
fordshire do not occur here, for those which were found 
there were mostly broken pieces of flint, sonder- 
remnade flint-stycken, with a chalk crust round 
them, and with very sharp edges ; but these Pebblestones 
are mostly small, quite round, and very smooth on the 
surface, overdrawn with a petrified white calcareous 
surface, krit-sk&rpa.* Those who lived here, denied 
altogether that any chalk, krit-barg, occurs in this 
district round Woodford, but they maintained that all 



* These bleached flint pebbles will mostly effervesce with nitric acid. 

[J.L] 



WOODFORD. 165 

the hills there consisted of the recently named brick- 
colored clay, coarse sand, and Pebblestones. For 
[T. I. p. 357] cultivating the fields there were used here 
the plough, harrow, roller, spade, etc. These ploughs, 
plog, were nearly like the Essex Plough, which in some 
things resembles the Hertfordshire [Buckinghamshire and 
Bedfordshire ; Kalm had forgotten the county] foot 
plough but has a broader ploughshare, bill, and no 
foot ; the mould-board, vand-bradet, is also better 
placed. Only one person used the Hertfordshire single 
wheel plough. The harrows, roller, and spade, exactly 
resembled those we have in Sweden. They used also 
here, while harrowing, to fasten sometimes three or more 
harrows side by side, as has been before described in 
Hertfordshire. The wheat is mostly sown here in Six- 
bout-lands but sometimes also in the manner practised 
in Hertfordshire in stitches or two-bout-lands or as it is 
called four-thorough-land. The breadth of a six-bout-land 
was commonly 6 ells (12 feet) sometimes less. The 
water-furrows between these " lands " were 18 inches 
wide at top, their depth often nearly a foot. These 
six-bout-lands sloped somewhat on both sides at the 
ends. In the lowest part the land was designedly made 
sloping that the water might soon run away. The 
wheat on all these places stood very beautiful. In 
some places there were still more, in other places less, 
than six bout-land, according as the soil of the fields was 
wetter or drier. Barley, Korn, was sown here very 
little, and that all in broadland. Pease were sown in 
drill, 18 inches or 2 feet between every drill or row, and 
were mostly hoed, hoades, in between, when they drew 
up the mould with small hoes, hackor, on to their 
roots. Oats are sown here enough, and that all in broad- 
land. Potatoes were much planted here by some, and 
that commonly on a certain piece of the field. The 



1 66 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

manure was carried out in March on to such a ploughed 
plot, and spread out over the land. Afterwards the 
same land was dug up with a spade, when [T. I. p. 358] 
A the manure came to lie lowest. In this the 
potatoes were afterwards planted in rows. To 
do this still more quickly they had a stick, 
kapp, of the accompanying figure, with which 
they made a little hole for the potato, to lay 
it in. D B is the part of the stick that made 
the hole in the earth when they trod on the 
pin CD. No ditches diken, are seen here 
on the ploughed fields, although the land in 
B some places might not require them, but the 
furrows between the stitches would fulfil all requirements. 
The arable fields were all surrounded with hedges of 
hawthorn, which were set up and managed nearly in the 
same way as has been before described in Hertfordshire. 
All the land about here was divided into small inclosures, 
tappor, which were either arable fields, meadows, or 
pastures, all of which were surrounded with hawthorn 
hedges. 

Beskrivning pa Woodford. Description of Woodford. 

Woodford is a parish or large village with a church in 
it, which lies in Essex, eight miles N.E. of London. The 
houses in this place are not built so close together as in 
several other parishes, but more scattered about. They 
are all of brick, several stories high, well built, and some 
of them handsome. The inhabitants are partly Farmers, 
but still more Gentlemen. The means of livelihood are 
various. The gentlemen, Gentlemennerne, live mostly 
on their money, which they get from their property. 
Bakers, innkeepers, butchers, have an abundant market 
for their wares, and thus practise a good trade, fod- 
krok. Farmers or others who are owners of some 



WOODFORD. 167 

land, make use of it in many ways : for it is partly used 
for arable fields, partly for meadows, and partly for 
pastures. On the fields there are sown, in particular, 
wheat, oats, and pease [T. I. p. 359] which the owners 
carry to London and there sell, but the most profit comes 
from the meadows and pastures ; for as hay in London 
is very dear, so it is here exceedingly well worth while 
to look well after the meadows, angarna. By means of 
the large number of horses and other animals to which 
they allow freedom to go on their meadows and pas- 
tures, they make incredible profits, for several people in 
London send their horses out here to bait, at beta, and 
pay a certain sum per week for each horse. The same 
thing is done with butcher-cattle, slagt-boskap, which 
are pastured on the meadows. Besides this, the farmers 
themselves buy up a quantity of sheep, calves, and 
other cattle from different places, which they keep for a 
time either in their inclosures, or in sheds, i hus, to fatten 
them, and then sell them to butchers in London. The 
last system returns most profit in the year to the farmers 
hereabouts because no kind of provisions has such a 
large consumption in England as meat. 

Such farmers are called Graziers, for they practise 
agriculture least, and devote themselves to grass and 
pastures to fatten cattle and sell them. The country 
round Woodford is charming. The houses lie on a hill. 
The hills and dales in the country round form a beautiful 
view in the distance. On the west and S.W. sides are 
seen London's high towers, as well as the beautiful build- 
ings which lie scattered about here and there in the 
country, with a multitude of arable fields, aker-falt, 
pleasure gardens and orchards, lust-och tra-gardar. 
On the east and S.E. sides, the river Thames appears, 
where are ships going to and from London, to say 
nothing of a diversity of beautiful villages, vackra 



1 68 



KALM'S ENGLAND. 



Byar, magnificent mansions, fruitful fields, meadows, 
orchards, plantations, skogS-lundar, &c, which here 
delight the eye. This is also the reason why some of 
the inhabitants of London partly have [T. I. p. 360] 
their own houses here, and partly hire houses here, 
especially in the summer time. For this reason also, 
rooms here in the summer are often dearer than in 
London itself. 

Grindar. Description of various Gates, 

The gates here were of several kinds. I will first 
describe those which they used very much at the 
entrances, gang-vagar, in front of, utan for, gentle- 
men's houses. These were so made that they could be 
opened, tagas up, both ways, inwards as well as out- 
wards. 

They are mostly small, made like other gates, but 
instead of hanging like other gates, on two gang-jarn, 
" ride-hinges " or ring-hinges, and hackar, " driving- 
hooks/' " gate-hooks,'' or pivot-hooks of similar shape, 
the shapes of the lower hinge and "gate-hook," haken, 
are here quite different from the upper. The upper 
" driving-hook/' hake, is like our common door and 
gate-hooks, and is constructed as in the accompanying 
plate, Fig. 1. It is driven into the side of the gate-post, 
grind-stalpen, which turns towards the gate. The 
gate, grinden, hangs by a "ride-hinge" on to this 
hake, or "driving-hook," which "ride-hinge/' g&ng- 
jarn, is fastened on to the middle of the side of the gate 
which turns towards the gate-post. 

For the lower hinge, instead of a "ride-hinge," there 
is driven into the bottom of the gate, 6 inches above the 
ground, or a little more, a double socket-iron, et jam, 
of the shape represented in Fig. 2, in which F E is the 
part which is driven into the side of the gate-frame, 



WOODFORD. 169 

grind-ramen, which is towards the gate-post, grind- 
Stalpen. This socket-iron is driven in so that A B is 
horizontal. For the lower gate-hook, instead of the 
" driving-hook/' there are two iron "knuckles," jam, 
such as are represented in Fig. 3, driven into the gate- 
post, side by side, and as far apart as the distance 
between the sockets C and D in Fig. 2. Here, in Fig. 3, 
M I and L R are the parts which are driven into the gate- 
post, and that in such a way that G H, or the knuckle- 
pin, comes to stand perpendicularly. 

When the gate hangs on the upper " driving-hook," 
kroken, Fig. 1, then the socket or hollow, inbdg- 
ningen eller utholkningen, in Fig. 2 [T. I. p. 362], 
which is between B and C fits on to the knuckle-pin, 
G H, of one of the " knuckles " shown in Fig. 3, and the 
other socket between D and A, Fig. 2, fits on to the 
knuckle-pin, G H, of the other knuckle, Fig. 3, so that 
each knuckle-pin, G H, always fits into its socket when 
the gate is shut, nar grinden star igen. 

When one opens the gate, it rests with one of the 
sockets, e.g., between B and C, Fig. 2, filled by the 
knuckle-pin G H, of one of the knuckles, Fig. 3, while in 
the same case, the other socket between D and A goes 
away from the other knuckle, haken eller jarnet, 
G H, and vice versa when the gate is opened, tages up, 
the other way. 

Klinkan pa grinden, the latch of the gate, is like 
an ordinary grind-klinka, gate-latch, but thick, 
trubbig, at the end, and is set in the middle of the side 
of the gate which faces the gate-post. 

Det jam hvari klinkan faller, the "hapse," 
" hasp," or " catch," into which the latch falls when 
the gate is shut, is of the shape shown in Fig. 4, from 
which it is seen that the gate can be opened and shut 
either way, because this " hapse " is fastened notch 



17° KALM'S ENGLAND. 

upwards, "just" on the side of the gate-post which looks 
towards the gate. 

The " driving-hook," Fig. i, is rather long, and the 
gate heavy, so that when it is opened and shut again it 
comes to rest by its own gravity or weight, just so that 
the latch falls again into the notch in the hapse for it, 
Fig 4. The hapse ought to be fastened on to the gate- 
post, so that N O, Fig. 4, is horizontal. The latch is 
not made to reach farther than the latitudo transver salts, 
or breadth at top of the hapse, so that it may be able to 
pass backwards and forwards and not strike against the 
gate-post. 

Another kind of klinka, " gate-latch," is shown in 
Fig. 5. Aker-grindarna, the gates of arable fields 
are for the most part exactly like our gates, and swing 
on similar hinges and gate-hooks. E F is an iron spike, 
et jam, driven horizontally into the side of the gate. 
A C is another iron, which hangs perpendicularly, but 
[T. I. p. 363] rides on an iron-pin, jarn-nagel, at 
B, so that its under side E A can be bent in towards the 
latch-post of the gate, but not outwards from the gate 
farther than the perpendicular position. When the 
gate is open, and it is afterwards shut, the hapse, klinkan, 
Fig. 4 which is fixed to the gate post so that its notch 
faces the gate, strikes against the latch-tongue C A, Fig. 5, 
between E and A, when it bends its lower end A in 
towards the gate, and as soon as the notch in the hapse is 
reached, och sa snart Klinkan gatt langre in, it 
falls by its own weight back into the perpendicular 
position, and the gate cannot be opened again, before 
one bends either A inwards or C outwards so far that 
A C becomes nearly parallel with E F, Fig. 5. At D is 
a projection, en hake, as far as which this iron spike 
E F is driven in to the side of the latch-post of the gate, 
because otherwise the pin at B might be damaged while 



WOODFORD. 171 

the iron-spike E F was being driven in to the gate, by 
striking it with a mallet at E. 

In other places all this was of wood, and instead of 
the hapse, klinkan, in this case being below E F, Fig. 5, 
it lies above it, so that when the gate closes, B C which 
is not then curved but straight, bends in towards the 
gate, and A then goes out from it, and also from its 
weight at A it shuts by itself, when the fixed hapse 
comes opposite the latch-post of the gate.* 

Sades-lador ; Sadens-troskning, etc. Bams, 
thrashing corn, etc. The barns in this district were 
sometimes built of brick with cross beams of wood 
between ; sometimes the walls were of oak boards, 
Ek-brader, nailed fast horizontally. On the top they 
were mostly covered with tiles. A few were thatched 
with straw. 

Logen, the " lodge " where the corn was thrashed 
was in the middle, and a " bay " or " lathe," lada, on 
either side. Grolfvet, the floor of the lodge was not 
higher above the ground than in the bays on each side 
of it nor was there any wall between them. They 
[T. I. p. 364] continued the thrashing far into the 
summer. Slagorne, the flails, were the same kind as 
ours. 

Some people used to clear the corn of chaff, agner, 
by means of fans, Kast-skafvel, others had a particular 
machine for the purpose, which was made of wood in 
shape like a Ranntra or loom in which one weaves 
cloth, but instead of standing perpendicularly like a 
loom, this winnower is laid horizontally, as it has to be 

* From the indiscriminate use by Kalm of the same word for different 
objects, and of different words for the same parts, the translation of this 
passage would have been impossible without the figures and a knowledge of 
the English technical names and uses of the various parts of the hinges and 
latches described. [J. L.] 



172 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

turned round. It lies also with each end of its axle-tree 
in a post with a hole cut in the top of it, en uti aildan 
upgrafven Stalpe. To each of the outer longitudinal 
outer-bars of the frame, langtran, which lie parallel with 
the axis, there is fastened a foursided cloth, either of 
coarse linen or wool, which hangs downwards. When 
the machine is turned round, these cloths, which are 
four in number, produce a strong wind. The thrashed 
corn, together with the chaff, agnarne, lies in a coarse 
sieve or "riddle/' rissel, which either stands upon a 
trestle, tra-stallning, or hangs by ropes. This riddle 
is placed between the winnowing-machine and the barn- 
door, logdoren. Thereupon one carl begins to turn 
the machine round, and another to jog, stota, the sieve 
backwards and forwards, when the strong wind which 
comes from the cloths drives the chaff, which together 
with the grain falls from the sieve, out to and through 
the lodge-door ; but the grain falls down, the more so 
the heavier it is, in a perpendicular line. 

Afterwards the grain is sifted and winnowed or 
fanned once more till it is clean. The faster the machine 
is turned round the stronger is the wind it produces. 

Anmarkningar vid nagra delar af hushallningen 

uti Essex. Notes on some branches of Rural Economy 
in Essex. 

Several of the farmers here kept a large number of 
cows, from which they got very much milk. I have before 
[T. I. p. 365.] mentioned that the women never went out 
to milk, but that this office was always performed by the 
carls, who went out into the pastures where the cattle 
were kept, morning and evening, and milked, and after- 
wards carried home the milk from thence, when it was 
taken from them by the girls, pigan, who siled it in 
winter in wooden vessels, trabunkar, but in summer in 



WOODFORD. 173 

large square boxes, lador, of lead, 4 or 6 inches deep, in 
which the milk curdles, skal lopna, in the summer very 
well, and becomes most delicious. The sweet milk was 
sold to the neighbouring inhabitants, who did not them- 
selves keep cows ; but that which was over was siled in 
the above-named manner and made into butter. The 
butter was churned or " Kerned," \_Nidderdale~], in tub- 
shaped kerns, karnades i tunnor, which were turned 
round by a handle. The kern-milk, karn-m j olken, was 
sold to the poor, or swine were fattened with it. 

Drangarne. The farm servants were sufficiently 
occupied during the day with various outdoor duties 
such as the care of cattle, ploughing, plojning, sowing, 
carting, korning, repairing hedges, &c, but as soon as 
they entered the cottage, stugan, in the evening, they 
did not apply themselves to the least work, more than 
that they ate, sat, and talked till eleven o'clock in the 
evening. They never troubled themselves to make 
wagons, or agricultural implements, for all such things 
were bought of certain people in the country, whose 
special business it was to make them. 

For fuel, coal was partly used, which was bought in 
London and carted here, partly and mostly wood, ved, 
which their hedges so richly provided them with, espe- 
cially their oaks, Ekar, and other trees, which they poll, 
topphuga, and leave to strike out new shoots, as has 
been mentioned before. 

Stekvandare, meat-jacks, or spits, they have in 
every house in England. They are turned by a weight, 
which is drawn up as often as it has run-down. The 
spits themselves are of iron, simply made, a very 
[T. I. p. 366] useful invention, which lightens labour 
amongst a people who eat so much meat. 

[Kalm was in London from April 21, to May 7, 1748.] 



174 KALM 5 S ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 390.] The yth May, 1748. 

In the morning I went from London out to Woodford 
in Essex, to Mr. Warner. 

Gras, ogras, &c, til dref-bankar. 

Grass, weeds, &c., in forcing beds. 
Mr. Warner had had the grass cut in several places 
in his garden, and laid it in a heap, to be carried down 
to the bottom of a hot-bed, dref-bank, and afterwards 
mould, mull, over it, to use instead of unfermented 
horse-dung ; for when moist hay, ratt ho, comes to lie 
tight together it begins to ferment, and thus generates as 
much heat as unrotted horse-dung causes, when it is laid 
and trampled down in a hotbed. At several places in 
Chelsea, near London, I saw that the market gardeners had 
all the weeds collected together, which they had come 
across in their market gardens, and had laid them in large 
heaps to use for the same purpose. 

Massans hastiga vaxt. Rapid Growth of Moss. 

The earth seemed in many places here in England, 
especially if it was meagre, to favour the growth of mosses 
almost more than I have seen in other places. When 
they had laid earth in pots, and had sown some plants 
therein, it often happened that the moss began to come 
up in the pot some few days afterwards. The more 
meagre the earth, so much the quicker was the moss said 
to come up. This moss was all of the genus Bryum. Pots, 
krukor eller p&ttor, in which they had laid mould, 
and sown plants six months [T. I. p. 391] or so before, 
were on the top so covered over with moss that the mould 
in the pot could with difficulty be seen. Some of these 
pots stood in hot-beds under glass, others under the open 
sky. I saw the rapid growth of this moss in pots in 
many places. 




KaZrrvs 'England. 



Extract from Roc que'; 



sal 

Survey 



i: 




instead Manor and surroundings 



lJTofcccep.775 



WOODFORD. 175 

The Sth May, 1748. 

My Lord Tilney's Magnificent House. 

In the afternoon Mr. Warner took me and several of 
his Swedish friends with him to show us My Lord 
Tilney's magnificent Palais, which lies between Woodford 
and London, about six miles from the last-named 
place. We had here a clear example of how disadvan- 
tageous it is not to observe moderation in what one is 
about to undertake. The following was narrated to me 
about this house : — It was about twenty years ago, or a 
little more, that My Lord Tilney, an Irish earl, was 
pleased to erect here a new and magnificent house with 
a large and beautiful garden round it, because the site 
lay uncommonly well, and the view from it was very 
delightful on all sides. My Lord Tilney was then a lord 
possessed of much money, which he had inherited from 
his forefathers. The difficulty met him at the place 
where the house should be built, that there was no water ; 
but money could cure all such things. Where, previous to 
that time there was scarcely anything but a ditch with a 
little water in it, we now saw a large flowing river, all 
made with art and human labour. He had had dug 
about the whole place many ponds, dammar, of which 
one and another resembled a little lake, so that the one 
which lies in front of the windows of the mansion, and is 
all artificially made, is so large that they can sail to and 
fro [T. I. p. 392] on it with large boats. Around the 
house there is on one side a large and beautiful garden 
with manifold allees, Alleer, promenades, trees clipped 
and hewn in all sorts of ways, several summer-houses, 
orangeries, forcing-houses, dref-hus, ruins, and arches 
of bent trees. In a word, all that can be required and 
produced by art in a garden. For a long distance, 
towards all sides, there were planted in allees, rows, and 



176 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

other forms, all sorts of trees, but that which principally 
excites the admiration of the spectator is the magnificent 
large building, which is all of hewn stone, and more 
resembles a royal palace than a private man's property, 
without as well as within. 

In it there were very many rooms furnished in the 
most costly way, and this so that one room was not like 
another. Magnificent paintings, extensive tapestries, 
Tapeter, costly tables of many kinds of marble, large 
crystal lustres, ljus-kronor, gilded chairs, tables, ceilings, 
tak, &c, various kinds of statuary, Bildhuggeri, and 
what varieties the East and West Indies can supply, 
were here displayed before the eyes. We saw tapestries, 
Tapeter, or more correctly, a kind of screen, skarm, 
of crosswise-laid glass threads, glastr&, of several 
colours, and picture-scenes, which resembled fine cloths, 
tyger, and were said to have come from the East Indies. 
It was affirmed that My Lord Tilney had laid out so 
much on all this that he has barely as much left that he 
can in some sort support his state, or maintain, halla 
vid magt, what he has here erected. 

This was evident both with the house and garden, 
which had not been fully completed, because the owner's 
resources did not allow him to incur further expense.* 



* The house was Wanstead Manor. 

In Magna Britannia, &c, Lond., 1720, 4to, Vol. I., p. 653, twenty-eight 
years before Kalm's visit, legitur : " Sir Richard Child, the son of Sir Josiah, 
now enjoys it, and has by his great expense so much improved it, though a 
princely habitation before, that the world itself cannot parallel it for buildings 
and fine gardens." The Beauties of England and Wales, 1803, 8vo., 
E. Brayley and J. Britton, Vol. V., p. 466, adds: "Sir Richard, afterwards 
created Earl Tylney, erected the present Wanstead House in the year 
1715." "The principal front is 260 feet in length. The whole building is 
cased in Portland stone; its depth is between 70 and 80 feet." "Colin 
Campbell was the architect." There is a view of the house opposite p. 466 
( P. 467. ) " The river Roding, which is formed into canals," &c. A Topographical 



WOODFORD. 177 

Diet, of England &c. S. Lewis, 7th Ed., 1849, 4to., Vol. IV., p. 459, adds : 
" Sir Richard, created Earl of Tylney, 1731." 

"From Lord Tilney it (Wanstead Manor) passed to Sir James Tilney 
Long, whose only daughter inherited this magnificent estate early in the 
present century." 

The rest of the story. 

Annual Register, 1812. Chronicle p. 157. 

Marriages. March. "William Wellesley Pole, Esq., to Miss Long, 
eldest daughter of the late Sir T. Long, Bart." 

Ann. Regist., 1823. Chron., p. 65. May. 

" Wanstead House was sold by auction on the premises on Monday last 
for ;£io,ooo. One of the conditions of sale binds the purchaser to clear 
everything away, even to the foundation, by Lady Day, 1825. The biddings 
commenced at ;£ 1,000," &c, &c. 

" Thus is sacrificed to extravagance and gambling a mansion which cost 
in its erection more than ^360,000, and which has no equal in the county of 
Essex." 

Ann. Reg., 1825, p. 280. Deaths. 

" Sept. 12th. At Richmond, aged 35, Mrs. Wellesley-Pole-Long- 
Wellesley. On the 19th, the remains of this amiable unfortunate lady were 
removed from Richmond on their way to Draycot in Wiltshire, the seat of 
Lady Tilney, there to be deposited in the family vault,'' &c. 

Tourist's Essex. E. Walford, i2mo., Lond., 1882. 

" The house was pulled down, to pay his debts, in 1822-23, an d his w ^ e 
died soon after from a broken heart." 

William Pole-Tylney-Long- Wellesley, the husband of Mrs. Wellesley- 
Pole-Long- Wellesley, succeeded to the Earldom of Mornington in 1845, and 
died 1st July, 1857. (Burke's Peerage.) [J. L.] 

SIC transit gloria mundi. 





LITTLE GADDESDEN. 

Country Between Woodford in Essex and 
Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire. 



[T. I. p. 178]. 



The 25th March, 1748. 




*N the morning I undertook at the 
cost and at the request of Herr 
Vice-President Baron Bjelke, a 
journey to see Mr. Ellis, who 
lived at Little Gaddesden in Hert- 
fordshire. Mr. Ellis was a man 
who had a great reputation for his 
Practique in Landtlmsh&llnin- 
gen, or Rural Economy, but still 
more for his many writings on the same Art, which 
latterly he had published yearly. 

I started at 9 o'clock together with Jungstrom, and 
a man who was our guide. 

The principal villages and places we passed through 
this day were the following. 

Waltham Abbey, situated six miles from Woodford, 
is now a little town, but has formerly been much larger. 
178 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 79 

The houses are tolerably [T. I. p. 179] good, and the 
church built in an antiquated style. Close to it was an 
old monastery, Kloster. At this town we saw in a gentle- 
man's garden the largest Tulip-tree in England, which 
rivalled the largest elms in height. The fruit however 
does not ripen sufficiently to be available for seed. 

Waltham Cross, a beautiful village an English mile 
from the last named place, and on the borders of Hertford- 
shire, for hitherto we had been in Essex. Here we saw 
one of England's antiquities, a specially carved pillar, 
pelare, erected in former times in memory of a Queen. 
[Eleanor, wife of Ed. I.] 

Cheshunt, a small but pretty village situated an 
English mile from Waltham Cross. Here we saw several 
beautiful and costly orchards. A river, en back,* which 
was artificially dug, getting on for sixty miles through 
the country, flowed through this village down to London. 
It is partly from this river that the water is led through 
subterranean channels and pipes, into houses, kitchens 
and cellars in London. 

St. Albans, a tolerably large and pretty town, is 
12 miles from Cheshunt, and 20 from London. It 
has in former times been very large and is reckoned one 
of the oldest towns in England, and is remarkable 
for its many antiquities. One of the existing churches, 
remarkable for its size and architecture, sardeles 
byggnad, looks as if it must be very old. 

Close to the same church there still stands a gateway, 
en port, which was built by the Romans during their 
occupation of this country. The gateway is, however, 
built round about, and the same house is used as a 



* The New River. From an exact measurement made in 1723 by Mr. 
H. Mill, the engineer and surveyor of the N. R. Co., its extent was ascer- 
tained to be 38J miles, 16 poles. Matthews ''Hydraulia " 1835 [J. L.] 

N 2 



i8o 



KALM'S ENGLAND. 



prison. [T. I. p. 180.] In the town there are four 
churches, but one of them is used as a market-place. 

Hempstead (Hemel Hemsted) is situated 5 miles 
from St. Alban's, and 25 from London. The town is 
small but tolerably pretty, lies down in a dale, dald, 
and has a church with a high tower. 

Little Gaddesden is a long village situated 30 English 
miles from London. We arrived there at six o'clock in 
the evening. I shall have farther on a better opportunity 
of describing this place. Now, I will give several notes 
which I made to-day on the journey between Woodford 
and Little Gaddesden. 

The appearance of the country which we passed 
through to-day was simply beautiful. There was not 
the smallest sign either of rock or granite, barg eller 
gr&sten. It was not entirely even and flat, but went 
in a continuous succession of undulations so that it was 
like a collection of hills and dales ; yet the hills were for 
the most part very long-sloping down into the dales. 
Between these ridges there sometimes flowed a little 
beck. 

Jordmon, the soil, was here the same as in Essex 
and Hertfordshire, viz. : on the top, soil, svartmylla, 
but immediately under that a reddish-yellow or Ochre- 
colored clay, lera, mixed with a number of pieces of 
flint, and, in the neighbourhood of Essex, of a similar 
colored gravel or coarse sand, groft grus. Around Hemp- 
stead in Hertfordshire, the hills consisted partly of 
chalk. 

All these hills and dales were divided into arable 
fields, meadows, and pastures, the spaces near the towns 
or villages being occupied by gardens and kitchen-gardens 
side by side, and here and there beautiful parks of all 
sorts of different kinds of trees, which were for the most 
part fenced round with living hedges of various leaf- 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. l8l 

trees which [T. I. p. 181] commonly consisted of 
hawthorn blended with blackberry-bushes, sloe, ash, oak, 
ivy (Agrifolium), elm, etc. 

These last-named had mostly been brought there by 
different chances, such as birds, &c. 

I saw not the smallest sign of such a farm fence, 
gardesgard, as is used in Sweden, unless the dead 
fences which are erected in places where an old quickset 
hedge has been cut down to get a new one to grow in its 
place, can be called a kind of gardesgard. Gentle- 
men's estates and farms were scattered here and there. 
The houses of the former were handsomely built, and of 
the latter very beautiful, all of brick, sten. In a word, 
the whole country in Essex as well as in Hertfordshire, 
through which we progressed, everywhere resembled a 
garden, tradgard, so that neither nature nor art and 
diligence had here spared anything which contributes to 
the adornment of a country. 

Husen, the houses which we saw in this journey 
were nearly all of brick, sten, yet not everywhere only 
and solely of brick, but in some places were korssverks- 
vaggar, ' cross-work walls,' i.e., brick and stud walls. 
In most places the houses were two or three stories high. 

Of the English house-building I note, that the houses 
are commonly so built, that even the upper stories, which 
with us in Sweden are usually only a granary, en vind, 
consist here of chambers and a room, in which the 
servants commonly lie, so that the roof slopes just close 
on to this room, without any granary, Skulle eller 
Vind, above. 

The walls in the upper stories consist often of thin 
boards and laths, daubed on the outside as well as the 
inside with clay and lime, so that it seems as though they 
were of stone. 

Such thin boarded walls are possible in this country 



1 82 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

where the winters are so mild. The roofs [T. I. p. 182) 
of the houses are mostly of tiles, which, however, are not 
concave or trough-shaped, as with us in Sweden, but 
commonly quite flat and plain, quadrilateral and oblong. 
They are fastened in this way, that on the under frame- 
work of the roof, which consists of rafters, are nailed 
horizontal laths of wood in rows, along the length of the 
roof, the one a little above the other, or about three 
fingers' breadth between the laths. On these laths are 
hung the tiles, which begin down at the eves, takfoten, 
and so go upwards imbricatim. 

In these tiles there are at the upper end two holes 
side by side in which are set wooden pegs, which, on the 
lower or inner side are 3 or 4 inches long ; but on the 
upper side they are cut off even with the upper surface 
or outside of the tile. There are always two holes in 
each tile, although they often do not set more than one 
peg in either of the holes, because one such a peg seems 
to suffice. The rain water cannot rot away these pegs, 
because they are always covered by the projecting end of 
the tile that lies next above. 

The roofs in these places on that account look exactly 
like church and other roofs with us in Sweden, covered 
with square shingles, span, only that the colour is some- 
what different. On a great many outhouses and a great 
many cottages, stugor, (which, however, were of brick), 
the roof, taken, consisted only of straw. 

Tak-resningen, the roof, was here mostly high, and 
very steep, so as to run off the rainwater more quickly, 
by which means the roof is rotted less. In some places 
there were seen some wooden outhouses, whose walls 
consisted of oak boards. 

Galfven, the floors of the houses, were mostly of fir 
or pine boards, which they had bought in London. In 
the lowest story, tiles or some other [T. I. p. 183] stone 
were used as a floor. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 83 

Korss-Stenarna, the chimneys, were often built, as 
has been before remarked, in the gable, gafveln, of the 
house itself, and this sometimes so that nearly all the 
chimney stood outside the house-gable, while the gable 
formed one side of the chimney. In so mild a climate as 
England has, this was good, in case the fire ever fastened 
on the chimney soot ; but otherwise it seems to be of 
little use that the back of the fire-place, towards which 
the fire mostly plays, stands outside the building. 

Akrarna, the ploughed fields, were everywhere 
where we travelled, very well cultivated. I have said 
before that the country consists of hills which slope on 
all sides. The fields, therefore, lie so that they have par- 
ticular advantage from the morning, midday, or evening 
sun, towards which they lie. Sometimes also arable fields 
are found on the north side of the hills, yet it was mostly 
the practice to leave this side either for pasture, meadow, 
or other parks, * Parker. 

Jordmon, the soil was here everywhere the sandy 
brick-colored fat clay which around London is common 
enough, den med sand utblandade tegelfargade 
feta leran som omkring London ar nog allmann. 
[The London clay.] 

On the ploughed fields lay a multitude of ordinary 
flint fragments, in some places so thick that many would 
wonder how the crops could there get any room to take 
root. I never saw any ditches on the ploughed fields, 
besides those which at times were found close to the 
hedges which were planted round about the fields. But 
the manifold water-furrows, vattu-faror, here served for 



* Park in the Coverdale district means an enclosure for horses, its original 
sense (see " Studies in Nidderdale" p. 34 and glossary). T. Rothe's "Aord 
Staels forfatning for Lehnstiden I., 29 1," showed that the word in its sense of 
deer-park was of English origin. [J. L.] 



1 84 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

ditches, for most of the arable fields were so laid out that 
there was not more than 2 feet between the water- furrows. 
The breadth of such a water-furrow was (as occasionally 
measured) 9 inches to 1 foot, and the depth 6 to 9 
inches. They were nearly always drawn from the hills 
down the ploughed fields, that the water might have 
[T. I. p. 184] free escape, but where the fields sloped 
too much they were drawn parallel with the dales, and 
not right down to the same for this reason, that a great 
water-flood might not scour away the soil and crops. 

No acre-reins in the middle of the fields, but only 
round about at the sides, near the hedges, but these reins 
were nearly always overwhelmed with mosses, like the 
worst of our moss-choked meadows. 

In some places the water-furrows were not so close 
together, but the ploughed fields were laid out in broad- 
land,* that is, in even and wide plots about 20 feet 
between each furrow, or grip. The space between the 
water-furrows was laid out in small ridges, or riggs, 
ryggar, which are here called ' stitches,' which were 
highest in the middle and sloped on both sides towards 
the water furrow. 

Thus no balks of earth, inga balkar af jord, 
appeared here, which would hinder the water from 
flowing down into the furrows. 

Magra orter. 

A rid and sterile places also occur in England. 

We saw to-day between Cheshunt and Bell Bar a great 
plain, yet not even, but having ridges and hollows, which 

* Broadland. On the chalk these broadlands run now, 1886, generally 
20 yards, but sometimes 18 yards wide. Two I measured at Albury, Herts., 
ran 56 feet and 58 feet. The " yards " are only stepped. On Grove Farm, 
Ivinghoe Aston, two adjoining old curved ridges were 62 and 48 feet wide. 
Sep. 21. 1886. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 85 

was little better than our barren ling heaths, Ljung- 
hedar, in Sweden. This plain extended nearly four 
English miles across, with a proportionate area.* The 
subsoil was brick-coloured clay. 

An abundance of the common ling grew upon it. 
Otherwise the plain was overgrown with ling-tufts, 
Liung-tufvor, between which were found a great 
quantity both of brackens, Ormbunkar, and mosses, 
but only some isolated blades of grass. Sheep were now 
pasturing here. In some places grew hornbeam enough, 
six feet high, and tolerably thick. The tops were cut off 
for fuel, otherwise it was of no particular use. This was 
a common land or allmanning, and may have been left 
in [T. I. p. 185] such a neglected state, without any 
improvement having been effected there, for that reason. 
[Northaw Common.] 

Kaniner, rabbits, occur wild in many places in this 
country. We saw on the afore-named heath some of 
them on a bank, of a grey colour. Now, in the middle 
of the day, there were only a few up, but the great multitude 
of holes which were seen everywhere in the bank, together 
with the information of our guide, that they are especially 
to be seen in the evenings, assured us that there were pro- 
bably a very great number of them, although they were 
now down in the ground. They were said to belong to a 
lord [the Earl of Salisbury] who lived not far off, and that 
no one without his permission had leave to disturb them. 

Par, sheep, were feeding almost everywhere on the 
hills where there are pastures. In some places, where 
the hills were long-sloping, the water-furrows appeared 
drawn with the plough in a direction straight down the 
field, and sometimes obliquely down the sides. The 



* From Gough's Oak to Bell Bar (4 miles) the road runs most of the way 
on gravel-capped ridges of London clay. [J. L.] 



1 86 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

reason is said to be to give the water by that means a 
free escape, so that it might not stand and become acid, 
sura, and by that means make the grass unwholesome 
for the sheep. 

Krita, chalk, is seen in many places between St. 
Alban's and Hempstead spread out on the field as a 
manure. The arable pieces were nearly as white as chalk 
with it, since it was in some places laid on in tolerable 
abundance. They intended now at the first opportunity 
to plough it down. The soil on which it was laid was 
the frequently-mentioned coarse, reddish-yellow sand, 
mingled with a reddish-yellow clay and fragments of flint. 
Near to Hempstead we saw an entire hill, which con- 
sisted only of chalk. [T. I. p. 186.] 

Kodynga, cowdung lay in some places carried out 
into the fields lying in heaps side by side, but not yet 
spread out. 

Massa, Moss, both Bryum and Hypnum, grew in 
distressing quantities on all the Tltmarker, * out fields ' 
heaths or commons, and meadows, and acre-reins, which 
lay near the hedges. It had in these places for the most 
part strongly taken root ; indeed, many of these meadows 
and commons resembled in that respect the most mossy 
of our meadows. 

[Here follows a short notice of a fire in London given 
above under " London."] 

The 26th March. 

[At Little Gaddesden.] 

In the morning I went to call upon Mr. Ellis but he 
had already gone out on to his fields. I therefore took, 
in company with Jungstrom, a walk out on to the 
arable fields around Little Gaddesden to inspect the 
same, the rather because it is commonly [T. I. p, 187] 
held that in Hertfordshire and on this side, there are 



LITTLE GADDESDEN, 1 87 

the best Agriculturists, akerman, in England. We 
now found here part of the arable fields very well 
husbanded, so that they lay almost like beds in a kitchen 
garden, others again sufficiently carelessly managed. 
The same description mostly applied to the inclosures, 
or tappor, which were laid out as meadows that one 
part was very well cared for, skott, the grass-growth 
very thick, and not a sign of moss in them. 

Others stood beautiful with clover, Sain Foin, and 
such like kinds of hay, but there were some also, which 
deserved our pity. The moss had there so got the upper 
hand, that it had almost entirely extirpated the beautiful 
hay which had formerly been sown there. It resembled, 
in a word, our most moss-choked meadows. After a 
time we met an old farmer, and enquired of him " to 
whom the field belonged which was cultivated with so 
much care? " Ans. " It is mine, if I may make so bold 
as to say it." 

Q. " Who is the cultivator of this inclosure, which 
stands so green and luxuriant with clover, and on which 
there is not one blade of moss ? " 

Ans. "This is mine, that is Mr. Williams'," etc. 

Q. " Who is the owner of this field, which to a great 
extent stands under water, and is so ill cultivated? " Ans. 
"A Mr. Ellis as he is called." " Mr. Ellis?" I asked, "you 
must have forgotten yourself, or is there here more than 
one Mr. Ellis ? " " No," replied the man, there is not more 
than one Mr. Ellis here, and to him the field belongs." 

Q. " Who works on the inclosure away there where 
the moss has so excessively got the upper hand ? " 

Ans. "The same Mr. Ellis." I had from such para- 
doxical answers soon forgotten all my Latin, and asked 
therefore " if it is the same Mr. Ellis who is so celebrated 
for the many beautiful works he has published on [T. I. 
p. 188] Rural Economy ?" The man answered that it 



1 88 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

is the very same, and as for Mr. Ellis's beautiful books on 
Rural Economy, he let them be for what they were worth, 
dem lanmade han i sit varde, but this he said he 
was sure of, that if Mr. Ellis did not make more profit 
out of sitting and scribbling books, and selling the Manu- 
scripts to the Publishers, than he realised from his 
farming, he would soon have to go and beg —for Mr. Ellis 
mostly sits at home in his room and writes books, and 
goes sometimes a whole week without going out into his 
ploughed lands or meadows to look after the work, but 
trusts mostly to his servant, drang, and young son, who 
is still a boy. 

I feared that the farmer said this from envy, and there- 
fore left such a heretic ! after he had constrained me 
to confess at least to myself that he had a very large 
experience in farming. 

We had now walked through a great many of their 
arable fields, meadows and inclosures, and had at 
last entered the churchyard to view the church, when 
Mr. Ellis himself came to meet us. He had got to hear 
from someone that strangers from foreign parts were 
come to visit him. We then, at his request accompanied 
him home to see the inventions he had discovered for 
the improvement of agriculture. He showed us a 
mixture of a particular manure which he had under a 
thatch-roof. He said that this manure had not its like, 
to produce the growth of a manifold crop, but we could 
not get out of him what this manure was composed of. 
He next showed us his four wheeled drill plough, fyrhjulta 
drill-plog, which he considered to be worth its weight 
in gold. 

This is now to be seen drawn on the title page of 
Mr. Ellis's Farmer's Instructor. 

[T. I. p. 189]. Afterwards he showed us the double 
Hertfordshire plough , of which there are both an illustration 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 89 

and description in Mr. Ellis's Agriculture improved. Item, 
a sieve with steel wires, et S&11 med St&l-tra, to 
separate the small wheat and barley-corns from the large, 
by that means to obtain a choice and much-sought-after 
seed-corn; item, three small treatises which lay ready 
and fair-copied for the press. They treated of the 
management of sheep and the duties of the shepherd. 
These treatises waited for the printer who would pay 
most for them. They have since been printed under the 
name of " The Shepherd's Sure Guide," together with a 
lot of letters to him, and several which he himself had 
written. 

I asked Mr. Ellis whether he had at his own house 
all the kinds of ploughs which he describes in his 
writings, and particularly those which he praised so 
highly for their usefulness. He answered " No," and 
gave as a reason that if he had them at home he could 
not have them in peace, partly because gentlemen took 
them away, partly that they were stolen by others. 

I then asked if he had not at home the useful ploughs 
and other kinds of machinery which he himself had 
invented. He answered "No," and gave the same reason 
for not having them. I asked, supposing anyone wanted 
them how one could get them made, and if there was any- 
one in the village who constructed them ? He answered 
that none can make them here, for it requires a singu- 
larly intelligent head for the purpose, but he had a man 
who lived 30 or 40 English miles from Little Gaddesden 
at whose place he had all such things made for one and 
all of the eminent persons and others, who ordered them. 
It is, therefore, obligatory on those who wish to have 
[T. I. p. 190] such a plough or implement to pay the 
cost of its carriage from the maker to Mr. Ellis, as well as 
thence to London, or to any place one might wish. 

During my visit to Little Gaddesden I enquired on 



190 KALM S ENGLAND. 

different occasions — not one, but very many — of those 
who lived here — farmers and other men — where and at 
whose establishment they believed Mr. Ellis had his 
implements and ploughs, &c, made. They answered 
that all implements that gentlemen, and others who had 
read his writings, order of him, are made by the plough- 
maker, Plog-makaren, who lived close beside the 
house where I lodged, for Mr. Ellis gives him the 
model and describes it to him, and contracts with 
him what he shall have for the woodwork, but the 
smith who lived close to the park (Ashridge Park), 
constructs the iron, according to the model and 
description Mr. Ellis has given him, and that he receives 
from Mr. Ellis the payment they have agreed upon, som 
de kommit ofverens om, Afterwards, Mr. Ellis sets 
whatever price he likes on the ploughs or implements 
which have been ordered of him. These farmers denied 
entirely that Mr. Ellis had his implements made at the 
establishment of any other man at a distance from here, 
as he himself told me. 

Still, I put to those who lived here, not once, but 
many times, the following questions : — Q. Whether Mr. 
Ellis uses, or has used, on his arable land any other kinds 
of implements than the other Farmers in this parish or 
village ? All answered unanimously that he had never 
used other or more than they, and that the ploughs 
which he uses are the same as they had used from time 
immemorial [T. I. p. 191], only they said that he on 
some single occasion, for his amusement, may have used 
some others, perhaps, for an hour. They unanimously 
bore testimony to the fact that he sells a number of the 
same implements as he has described in his books, to 
different gentlemen. 

Q. Whether Mr. Ellis uses on his arable any other kind 
of manure than the other farmers in Little Gaddesden ? 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. I9I 

Ans. Absolutely no other. 

Q. Whether Mr. Ellis gets annually from his arable 
a more abundant harvest, skord, than the other 
farmers ? 

Ans. Never more than others ; for if he gets more one 
time, they get more another. 

Q. Whether Mr. Ellis uses to plough, kora, and treat 
his arable in any other way than the other farmers in the 
place ? 

Ans. Never; but entirely in the same way. 

Q. Has he a large number of sheep ? 

Ans. No more than the other farmers, but rather 
less. 

Q. Has he a large number of cows? 

Ans. Two individuals ; for in the whole of Little 
Gaddesden there are hardly twenty cows in all. 

Q. Has he a large number of work-people, tjenste- 
f Oik ? 

Ans. One girl and a boy, besides his son and daughter; 
for in this place it is the custom that a farmer does not 
keep many servants, but always employs day-labourers, 
dagsverks-folk, for which reason in every village there 
live a great many poor, who hire themselves out to work 
for pence. 

They gave here eight to ten pence a day to one carl, 
who for that is obliged to work from 6 o'clock in the 
morning till 6 in the evening. This character they said 
they were obliged [T. I. p. 192] to give Ellis : that he 
never let any of the labouring folk wait for their money, 
as is otherwise very common, but he gives them each 
evening their day's money, sin dags-penning. In the 
same way he pays down, straxt, those who make any- 
thing for him. 

The farmers maintained that Mr. Ellis's principal 
occupation consists in writing books, and selling to gentle- 



I92 KALMS ENGLAND. 

men the ploughs and implements which he has lauded 
therein, although he had seldom tried them himself. 

He has also been for a time a Custom House officer, 
or Exciseman, Tull-betjent, also for a long time with a 
brewer in London. 

The Treatise he has written on Brewing, om Brygg- 
ning, is considered by several in England as the best 
of all his writings, because he relates therein his own 
experiences. When he first came to Little Gaddesden 
he was quite ignorant of Rural Economy. He had learnt 
most of it there, but his neighbours will not yet recognise 
him for so good a Farmer, Landtman, as many of them, 
but said that he does not cultivate his arable and 
meadows so well as the others. With his present and 
second wife he had made a rich marriage, and with her 
money bought the farm he now lives upon. At first he 
undertook several experiments in husbandry, but he had 
not been particularly lucky with them, for the most 
part of what he had left of the money he got with his 
second wife had in this way taken its departure, so that 
he was poor enough. His spouse had grieved so much 
over it, that she had not been able to recover herself, 
komma sig fore. 

After a time, when he had made several tours in 
England to note all sorts of things in Rural Economy, he 
sat down to write books, and tohavevarious [T. I. p. 193] 
agricultural implements made to sell to others, in which 
he had found his reckoning better, so that he has now 
tolerably recovered himself, although he is not just so 
particularly rich. Through this assiduous book-writing it 
happens that his arable and meadows are worse cared 
for than his neighbours'. Meantime his writings proved 
their good and great worth, and gained especial renown ; 
because he gave in them what he had with much trouble 
and great industry collected during many journeys through 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 93 

England in all departments of Rural Economy, very much 
of which it is useless to seek for in other books, and has 
never before been mentioned, far less described. He 
seems, however, to be too diffuse, and to bring much in 
that does not belong to the subject, and sometimes a 
thing is found inserted in ten, twenty, and more places 
in his writings. The worst is, that one cannot build 
upon what is said in them ; for he has been too 
credulous, and has taken as true what false and made- 
up stories his mischievous neighbours often amused 
themselves by telling him — of which several persons 
assured me.* 

Harfningen. The harrowing which we saw to-day 
in a field near Little Gaddesden, where pease were 
being harrowed down was somewhat peculiar. They had 
taken six harrows. Each harrow, which was square, con- 
sisted of four wooden bars, and on each bar, tra, five 
iron tines, jarn-pinnar, so that the whole harrow had 
twenty tines. They had bound all these six harrows side 
by side, by laying a long pole or ' stang,' stang, across 
them, and binding them fast to the stang. In front cf 
the harrows were six horses harnessed abreast, one horse 
for each harrow, harf. With these harrows thus arranged 
the field was harrowed. A young boy went and led one 
of the side horses and [T. I. p. 194] another went 
behind and drove them. They had by that plan the ad- 
vantage that the field was sooner harrowed, and that they 
did not require to employ more than two persons for six 
harrows and horses. 

Jordmon, the soil, was here very loose and fine, so 



* Although Ellis was a charlatan, and did not help to solve the great 
problem of how to make farming pay, it is probable that, had he been able 
to read Swedish, he could have recovered substantial damages in an action for 
libel. [J. L.] 

O 



194 KALMS ENGLAND. 

that the harrow-tine, harf-pinnan, could easily tear it 
to pieces.* 

The zjth March. 

Mr. Ellis did me the honour to spend a great part of 
the day with me. He esteemed it a great pleasure to 
talk with me on various things in Rural Economy ; yet 
he seemed more to ask than to be asked. When I en- 
quired of him about one thing and another, I seldom got 
any other answer than that he referred me to some of 
his writings, where I should find the subject exhaustively 
treated. 

He said he had travelled nearly all over England, to 
see and write up their Rural Economy, husliallning. 
Often when he had got to hear that anyone experienced 
in Rural (Economy lived at any place, and whose name 
was known for his particular insight into some special 
branch of Rural Economy, Landthushallningen, he 
had travelled expressly to him, although he lived 20, 30, 
or more miles out of the way. When he observed that this 
other was interested in his conversation, and did not wish 
to lose any of it, Mr. Ellis always had something pleasant 
and delightful to relate in some branch of Rural Economy 
which the other was fond of, after which the other to pay 
him back again, began to tell something to Mr. Ellis, 
and so by turns, till Mr. Ellis got to know all that the 
other professed or was noted for. Often has he posed as 
if his object had not been to learn something, merely 
[T. I. p. 195] to get a better insight into what he 
wanted, because the other did not then take him for 
what he was. 



* This seems to have been a species of co-operation, in which several 
farmers lend horses and implements for the day to one, especially when he 
takes a new farm, as still practised at Kelso. It is unlikely that one of these 
small farmers would have had six harrows. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. I95 

After some of his books had been printed, he travelled 
about himself and had with him some examples to sell to 
gentlemen. He then travelled incognito, and let no one 
know who he was, but gave himself another name, and 
said he was sent by the publisher to sell books. This 
he did, partly to collect many observations, and partly to 
hear the opinions of others upon his writings. 

I asked what he thought of Mr. Bradley's writings. 
He said that Bradley had written very well about Horti- 
culture, but in Agriculture and Rural Economy he was no 
use, because he was entirely inexperienced in Agriculture, 
Landtbruk. Mr. Ellis said also that he had neverthought 
of writing anything on Rural Economy; but when he got 
to read Bradley's writings, and saw how inconsistent 
they were, he had taken up his pen to write something 
better. 

Mortimer's books on Rural Economy he said he had 
not seen, or at least read. 

Switzer's writings he considered in many things to be 
very good. 

He also said he was now a man of somewhat over 
60 years of age, for he said he was born in the 8o's in the 
last century. Nearly all his life he had been and was 
still quite fresh, only that he had now and then been 
troubled with gout. He said he had been related to 
Mr. Sherard. [James Sherard the botanist.] 

When I said that he by his writings had caused Little 
Gaddesden to get an undying name, and that no one 
before his time knew that a Little Gaddesden existed, 
he answered " No prophet is accepted in his own 
country " Luke iv. 24. 

The tobacco which he had by him, and which he 
smoked, was strongly mixed with aniseed by which 
it was agreeably scented. He thought such a tobacco 
very wholesome. 



196 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Bot mot Ormbett. Remedy for Snake bite. 

Mr. Ellis said he knew a sovereign remedy for snake 
bite, which consisted in this, that when anyone had been 
bitten by a snake, blifvit huggen af en orm, he must 
at once kill the snake, take its fat or lard, fett eller 
ister, and lay it on the wounded place. This, he 
assured us, supersedes everything hitherto discovered. 
I have since on my foreign travels heard from very 
many this given as one of the surest remedies against 
snakebite. 

Bot mot Sara ogon. Cure for Sore Eyes. 

Mr. Ellis assured us that sore eyes are cured by 
nothing so well as fat and lard of snakes and swine, 
which Sir Hans Sloane first discovered, and has since 
made generally known through the press. 

As Mr. Ellis wished to hear something of the mode 
of life among the Lapps, I mentioned to him as a 
peculiarity that one scarcely ever finds a Lapp afflicted 
with scurvy, and added that Linnaeus ascribes as a 
reason the Lapps' diet, which is never to use salt, or eat 
salt meat ; also that one from that seems to have reason 
to believe that salt might possibly be the principal cause 
of this sickness. Also I told him that few of the Lapps 
use bread, and many of them, perhaps, have never seen 
it, but that they avail themselves of dried flesh, and fish 
instead. But I note that Mr. Ellis [T. I. p. 197] did 
not rightly understand my meaning, for in a book which 
he has since published, and which he calls The Country 
Housewife's Family Companion, he says, pp. 22 and 23, that 
he gathered from me " that the Lapps are never plagued 
with scurvy, for the reason that their bread is dried fish, 
&c." whereas I not only ascribed to the salt, the first and 
greatest, if not the only principal cause of this sickness, 
and vice versa that when salt is not used one does not 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 97 

hear of it, but also told him the question which the great 
Boerhave put to our learned Linnaeus, whether all the 
Lapps were not full of scurvy because they dwelt in so 
cold a climate ? and Linnaeus' answer thereto. I have 
thought it necessary to insert this here, so that nothing 
should stand as my opinion that I do not own. 

The 28th March, 1748. 

In the morning we walked out on several grass-lands 
and arable fields, fait OCh &krar, which lay around 
Little Gaddesden. In the whole of the latter half of this 
month the ground here was entirely bare of snow, bar, 
and green, and the weather sometimes tolerably fair; but 
for all that there is up to this date hardly a sign of the 
trees putting forth their leaves, much less flowers ; so 
that to all appearance they do not seem to see the trees 
in leaf here so very much earlier in the spring than in the 
southern provinces of Sweden. Hazel and some species 
of willow were in flower now, but almost no other trees. 

Et stort fait. A large Common [Ivinghoe Com- 
mon] lay on the N.W. side of Little Gaddesden, where 
a number of sheep were pasturing. It was a down or 
summit of the country, en hogd af landet, long-sloping 
on all sides. [T. I. p. 198.] The soil was the same gravel 
and sand of reddish-yellow or brick-colour as has been 
described above. Here and there appeared tufvor, mole, 
or anthills, enough. The whole table-land was overgrown 
with furze and brackens, and a little grass in some places. 
The ground, on the places free from furze and brackens 
was very much choked with mosses. The districts 
around Skofde in Vaster-Gothland, when Billingen is ex- 
cepted, is very like England in appearance, although 
there are granites, grastenar, instead of which in these 
parts in England, flints lie on the arable and commons, 
or 'outlands,' utmarker. 



I90 KALM S ENGLAND. 

Orter. Plants which stood in flower at this time of 
year, were noted, that thereby the difference between 
England and Sweden in this respect may be somewhat 
judged of. They were the following : — 

Veronica, 17. [V. Agrestis] was here an evil weed 
on the arable fields. 

Primula Veris Vulgaris, Raj. Syn. 284, Primrose. 

Narcissus, H. U. 74 sp. 2, Pask-liljer, " Lent Lilies," 
Daffodils [Nar. Pseudo-Nar.] 

Smultron. [Fragaria Vesca.] Wild Strawberry. 

Ranunculus, 460. [R. Ficaria.] Lesser Celandine. 

Lamium, 494. [Lam. purpureum.] Purple Dead Nettle. 

Draba, 523 [D. Verna.] 

Ulex, H. U. 212. [U. Europseus] Furze. 

Leontodon, 627. [L. Taraxacum. L.] Dandelion. 

Tussilago, 680. [T. Farfara.] Coltsfoot. 

Bellis, 707. [B. perennis.] Daisy. 

Hassel, Hazel. 

[T. I. p. 199-] Salices. Willows. 

Daphne, 94. [D. Laureola.] Spurge Laurel. 

FURZE was, of all plants, the one which grew most 
plentifully on the aforenamed common. From being con- 
stantly cut down for fuel by the people, it was now 
scarcely 4 inches high. Two boys went on one place, and 
with a " bill," a particular kind of scythe or axe, lia 
eller yxa, cut it off close to the ground. The length 
of the blade of this bill was 1 foot, the breadth 3 inches, 
the thickness at the back about £ inch. It was sharp on one 
side so that it could only be used by one who was right- 
handed, or who, while holding the shaft with both hands, 
has the right hand foremost or nearest the scythe, lian. 

The bill-blade itself made with the shaft which was of 
wood, and the part of the iron which the shaft was 
fastened to, a very obtuse angle, so that the carl escaped 
having to stoop while he was striking the cutting stroke. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 99 

The boys thus cut down with this scythe Furze, 
Brackens, old grass, and whatever came in their way, all 
of which they then raked together into heaps, bound 
them into bundles, and used the thin shoots of black- 
-berry-bushes, Rubus, 409 \_R. Fruticosus] as a band 
to bind them with. It was, therefore, highly neces- 
sary for one who would bind these into bundles that he 
should have good gloves, because both furze and the 
blackberry bushes are among the most thorny kinds of 
trees or bushes. We saw several heaps of such bundles, 
which lay here upon the plain, and which were to be 
carried home for fuel. This [T. I. p. 200] furze with its 
thorns, had the effect that, when one walked where it 
grew, it tore great scratches on the shoes, and where it 
encountered the stockings, they were not respected. It 
pricked the legs savagely. We afterwards saw boys in 
many places in this district cut down the same in the 
above-described way for fuel. 

Plinta. Flint of the ordinary and common kind, 
which is used to strike fire with, and in fire-arms, lay 
plentifully on the arable fields. On some fields there 
was such an abundance of them, that one had difficulty 
in seeing a bit of earth for them. It was found here 
both of the lighter and darker sort, and sometimes in 
larger sometimes in smaller pieces. The largest as large 
as a common clod, klot, but mostly they were quite as 
small as the closed fist and less. Since there is not the 
least sign of granite, grasten, in this district, it is often 
the practice to take flints for the foundations of houses. 
In one place and another the outhouses are for the most 
part built of them. Bricks also are commonly used both 
for foundations and walls. 

The 2gth March, 1748. 

Par. Sheep are found everywhere in this country 



200 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

in great numbers, which originated partly in this, that 
they get to sell all the more wool, partly also because 
there is no nation which eats so much meat as the 
Englishmen, and among the same, their mutton or Far 
stek is not to be despised, and therefore the farmer has 
a considerable profit, who is the owner of a large number 
of sheep, not to mention their other uses. Nearly all 
their sheep were white. There was scarcely one in a 
hundred that was black or brown or any other colour. 
They commonly had either [T. I. p. 201] on the back, 
the nape of the neck, the head, or elsewhere, wool 
coloured red in one pattern or another, with ruddle, 
rod-krita, and water mixed, by which colouring every 
owner knew his own again. The greater number of them 
had two horns. Every farmer had commonly one sheep 
which carried a little bell, skalla. The little lambs had 
a very long tail which reached nearly to the ground, but 
as soon as they were nearly six months old half the tail 
was cut off, which was said to be done partly because 
the sheep looked better, partly and principally because a 
great deal of dirt fastens on to the long tail. The 
English sheep were far from shy, at least nowhere near so 
much so as our Swedish. They went day and night 
out on the pastures under the open sky, without having 
any house or roof to go under. 

In one single place I saw that a boy went with them 
to pasture, but commonly and almost everywhere they 
were left without a shepherd, vall-hjon, entirely by 
themselves. At home at the farms they had in some 
places small S heelings, skjul, built of short posts and 
the roof of the skeel of straw, under which the sheep 
could go when it rained, or was bad weather. Some had 
also another outhouse, into which the shepherd, Para 
herden, in such a case, and in some places every evening, 
drove in the sheep. Some farmers had in the middle of 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 201 

the farm-yard under the open sky erected as it were a 
crib or rack, krubba eller hack, of two narrow hurdles, 
grindar, which were fastened together at the bottom, and 
between which fine hay was laid of which the sheep went 
to eat in the night when they stood at home in the farm- 
yard. 

The sheep are clipped here not more than once a 
year, and that in the summer. They are folded from 
Michaelmas in the autumn till "this time [T. I. p. 202] in 
the spring, and later, on turnip-lands, a better description 
of which shall be given farther on. 

The hurdles, grindarna, wherewith, and within 
which, they are folded, are about 8 feet long, and 3 feet 
6 inches high, which hurdles are ' keyed ' or looped, 
klafvas, close together in a row, a post being driven 
down into the ground between each ; and thus, accord- 
ing to the number of sheep, they made a larger or 
smaller fold, falla. From the fold there commonly 
runs a narrow passage made of similar hurdles, to some 
one of the living hedges, by which the field is sur- 
rounded, that the sheep in bad weather may be able 
to go to such hedge and shelter there. In the sheep-fold 
there is mostly a " sheep-crib " or " sheep-trough, " ho, 
knocked together of two boards ad angulum acutum, or a 
little less than an angulus rectus, and a board-lap at each 
end, so that the fodder may not run out. When it is bad 
weather barley is laid in this trough, or oats, or pease, 
for the sheep to eat. 

Halm-tak. Straw-thatch was much used in this 
district, on outhouses as well as on cottages, stugor 
hvari folket bodde. It was also hereabout not un- 
common to see beautiful brick houses, stenhus, with 
straw-thatch over. A great many outhouses were, how- 
ever of wood, the walls, for instance, being made of thick 
oak-boards. The roofs of the houses, whether they were 



202 KALM S ENGLAND. 

of tiles or thatch, were very steep and high-pitched, so 
that it was quite impossible to go upon them, as with us 
in Sweden, where straw-thatch is used, but for all such 
one was obliged to have a ladder to stand upon when 
there was anything to do to the roof. The rain-water 
could also not remain so long on such a steep-sloping 
thatch roof. 

Halmtaken, the thatch roofs, were here made in 
this way, that one first erected a framework of wooden 
beams upon which the thatch roof [T. I. p. 203] is to 
rest, by erecting wooden rafters from both the 'long- 
walls,' which rafters at their lower ends stood on the 
roof plate, tak foten; but at their upper ends leant 
against each other at the roof-tree of the house and 
formed there an angulum acutum. Across and above 
these rafters were nailed horizontal laths all the way 
up the rafters up to the ridge, Krapp-&sen, one 
row of laths above the other, about a foot between 
each row. They had afterwards begun to lay thatch 
down at the eaves, takfoten, so that the thatch might 
be a foot thick, sometimes more, sometimes less. The 
straw was then laid so that the large ends of the straw 
were turned downwards, and the small ends upwards ; 
but at the ends of the sides of the ridge-shaped roof, it 
was turned so that it did not there lie parallel with the 
other straw on the roof but obliquely, that is to say, the 
lower ends obliquely outwards from the ridge and the 
upper more on to the inner part of the thatch, as is seen 
in the accompanying Figure. [Fig. omitted. J. L.] 

The straw is fastened thus: when it had been arranged 
as one would have it, it was then bound round at the 
upper end with a withe of willow, en vidja af Vide, 
or hazel, and so [T. I. p. 204] fast to some of the 
above named horizontal laths. That is to say, the lowest 
row of straw was first bound in that way fast to the roof- 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 203 

plate, takbandet, afterwards, other straw was laid 
on that, but a little higher up, ofvanfore, so that the 
latter comes to cover the upper parts of the first laid 
straw, together with the withe or band, banden, with 
which it was bound. In this way it was continued in 
layers right up to the ridge, kr&pp-asen, till the whole 
roof had thus been thatched, tackt. Across the ridge 
was laid long straw, lang-halm, as much and as thick as 
one wanted, when it was bent and turned in that position, 
salunda, down on both sides of the ridge, and was after- 
wards bound fast in the above described manner on both 
sides of the ridge. On this thatch there were not laid 
any sticks, Riskor, or anything else to press down or 
retain the straw against storm and wind, because the straw 
was so well fastened that it was not necessary. Besides 
that, such weights on the straw have the disadvantage 
that the rain-water easily comes to stand against them, 
and in these places causes the thatch to rot more quickly. 
It was wheat straw which the roofs here were thatched 
with, and in this district it grows very long. 

The 30th March. 1748. 

Svartmyllan,ellerden jorden, som pa akrarna 
l&g ofverst, the soil which lay on the surface of the 
ploughed fields was not here of so black a colour as I saw 
in Russia, about Moscow, and between Moscow and 
Tulou, where it often looks as black as gunpowder ; but 
it strikes here for the most part somewhat of a reddish- 
yellow or ochre-colour, which without doubt proceeds 
from the gravel and clay immediately under it, which 
have the same colour. The soil under [T. I. p. 205] the 
grass sward on the hill sides, and such like places was 
also commonly of the same colour. 

Vapling ; Trifolium purpureum...pratensi simile 
— Raj. Syn. 328 [T. pratense L.] which is called 



204 KALM S ENGLAND. 

Clover by Englishmen, was sown here on a great many 
of the arable fields and inclosures or small tappor, and 
that always, where I saw it, on * broad-cast land,' or on 
nearly flat-ploughed land, and not on that which lay in 
high ridges. After this is sown, it seldom lasts more 
than two years before it dies and must be sown again de 
novo. Some have it for three years, but never more. 
Here it is usual to sow it with some kind of crop. The 
second summer after it is sown it is cropped once and 
often twice. After that, the land is ploughed up and 
sown with wheat, till, after a few years, it is laid down 
as meadow again. 

Akrarna. The arable fields in this district, which 
stood sown with wheat, were for the most part laid out 
in Stitches or Four -thorough-land* : that is, that the whole 
field was laid out in small ridges, ryggar, each of the 
ridges only of four furrows, fyra faror, with water 
furrows between all the ridges, med tata wattu-faror 
emellan ryggarna. The breadth of the ridge between 
the water furrows was a Swedish ell, or 2 English feet. 
The ridges, or Stitches, were so made that they lay highest 
in the middle, and sloped after that on both sides 
towards the water furrows. The Wafer furrows were 
drawn from the highest lying part of the field, to that 
part of it which lay deepest down towards the dales, 
all in lined rectd. The depth of the water- furrows was 
6 inches, sometimes more, sometimes less, the breadth 
1 foot, just about. At both ends of the water-furrows, 
both upper and lower, were drawn four such stitches, or 
ridges [T. I. p. 206], with water-furrows between, all of 
the same breadth as the others across the field, or so 
that the stitches and water-furrows, which went from the 



* Four-furrow-land. " Furrows are here called ' thoroughs.' " (Colloq) 
1886. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 205 

highest to the lowest part of the field, made with these 
[' headlands ' or ' butts '] angulos rectos, or abutted per- 
pendicularly against them. 

These cross-ridges may have come to be made for 
this reason, that when ploughed up and down according 
to the field, there is always left at both ends a bit 
unploughed ; that is to say, the [' headland,' or] piece on 
which the horses, dragarne, are turned round, which 
must afterwards be ploughed up crosswise just as it 
lies, pa detta sattes, 

Humla. Hops we saw planted in no place by the 
farms and villages here in Hertfordshire where we 
travelled. I asked the farmers whether they had no hops 
here ? They answered that they do not plant any hops 
in this district, but they buy all that they have need of 
for their requirements from Kent and the districts in 
England where they specially lay themselves out for hop- 
planting. In England the wholesome custom is much in 
use, that nearly every district lays itself out for something 
particular in Rural Economy, to cultivate, viz., that which 
will thrive and develop there best, and leaves the rest to 
other places. They believe they win more by this means 
than if they cultivated all departments of Rural Economy ; 
for, besides that he who has many irons in the fire must 
necessarily burn some, they also think it is not worth while 
to force nature. Thus their principal occupation in 
Hertfordshire is Agriculture; Hop-growing and Cherry-tree 
cultivation in Kent, sheep-farming in another place, 
cattle-breeding in another, &c. 

They thus sell their own ware, and buy what they 
themselves have not, or they also exchange ware for ware. 

Tjenste-folk, Farm servants. A farmer in this 
district does not himself keep many servants. When he 
has a drang, manservant, and a piga, girl, he has 
enough. There are also many farmers who have no 



206 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

manservant. I was assured that in all Little Gaddesden 
there were not twelve men servants who serve as such for 
annual wages. For here it is the custom that every 
farmer mostly employs dagsverks - karlar, som 
arbeta for dags-penning, day-labourers who work 
for daily wages, to perform all their affairs with, both in 
the arable field, in the meadow, in the lathe, thrash- 
ing, &c, by which arrangement they believe, for many 
reasons, that they come out much better than if they 
themselves kept and fed many agricultural labourers. 
It is also for this reason that in every town, parish, and 
village, Stad, Socken, OCh By, there live a great many 
labouring men and poor folk, who only feed themselves 
and their families by going to work for farmers, gentle- 
men, and other wealthy persons for daily or weekly 
wages. Here in Little Gaddesden a labouring man gets 
from 8 or 10 pence to a shilling a day. At Woodford, 
in Essex, my host gave 9 shillings a week to each 
labourer whom he had at his farm to thrash, and kept 
them in svag-dricka, small beer, besides. When 
a labourer here in Little Gaddesden gets a shilling a day 
or a little less, he is bound to provide his own food, and 
he is given by the farmer, or the one who hired him, 
nothing further except small beer, Svag-dricka eller 
Spis-61, as it is everywhere the practice not to let the day 
labourer have anything further. Carpenters who had set 
up a new plank-fence received from our landlord eighteen 
pence a day and kept themselves in food and all. 

Kor. Cows. 

[T. I. p. 208]. They had not a particularly large 
number of cows here in Little Gaddesden. One farmer 
had seldom over 3 or 4, often less. I was assured that 
in the whole of Little Gaddesden there were not more 
than twenty cows. The whole winter up to the month of 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 207 

May they are kept at home at the farm in a cow- 
shed, hemma vid garden i hus, and fed with dry 
hay, but afterwards they have freedom to go out in the 
pastures, beteshagarna, during the summer, and there 
seek their food. The reason why they have so few cows in 
this village and the other villages lying round about, is said 
to be this, that they have so little pasture and meadow 
land ; because it is mostly arable ; but in other places 
some distance from here where they have large pastures, 
betes-marker, there are said to be plenty of cows. 

Getter brukades ej har. Goats are not used here. 

One farmer only, Mr. Williams, had two goats, viz., 
a buck and a goat, which were shown to me, as something 
rare, that they believed I had never seen before. He 
said he kept them mostly in the stable because he was 
of the opinion that the horses did well with them. 

Ormbunkar, Pteris, 843. [Pt. Aquilina] Brackens 
grew in very great abundance on the hills, near and in 
the hedges, and elsewhere. At a farm I saw the same 
dried, carried home, and there laid in two heaps, each of 
them as large as a small house, and nicely thatched with 
straw. I asked for what purpose they would use this 
large quantity of brackens. They answered " for fuel for 
all purposes for which otherwise wood or furze, &c, is 
used." In particular they said they used this in the pre- 
paration and drying of malt, [T. I. p. 209] brewing, 
and such like. In my walks afterwards on different sides 
around Little Gaddesden, I always found this growing in 
great abundance on all common pastures or hills. From 
the good soil, it had commonly grown here to a greater 
height and luxuriance than with us in Sweden. We 
also saw several places where they cut the same and 
collected it for fuel. In the Duke of Bridgwater's Park 
[Ashridge] which lay close to Little Gaddesden, there 



208 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

was a large brickyard, Tegel-bruk, where a multitude 
of bricks, Tegel, were made. The fuel which was then 
used to lay in the brick-kilns, Tegel-Ugnarna, and to 
burn the bricks with, was small bundles and twigs of 
beech, but especially these brackens. We saw large 
heaps of it lying in the brickyard, thatched with straw. 
The folk said that these ferns give in the burning a much 
stronger heat than many kinds of wood. 

Furze is said not to come up to this, in that respect, 
by a long way. A worthy old farmer assured me that 
brackens ought to be reckoned amongst the best fuel, as 
he could testify from a long experience. He used it for 
baking and much else. In many places it was also seen 
collected, and thrown amongst the straw under the cattle 
in the farm yard, there to lie and rot, and by that means 
form manure. It is also used to lay on the ground under 
wheat, pease, and barley stacks. 

The 31st March, 1748. 

In the morning we went over several arable fields, 
meadows, and pastures, to view the condition of the 
district and the country. 

[T. I. p. 210]. Arter, pease were sown here in very 
many places, and that always in ' broad-cast-land ' or 
on flat-ploughed plots, jamna &ker-stycken. Each 
' cast,' or space between the water-furrows, was about 20 
feet broad. A cross furrow went down at the end, but I 
saw not for what use, for it lay like an earth bank down 
there, and held back, qvarhdlt, the water which had 
flowed down there from above when it was raining, for 
the bank of the water-furrow was so large and broad 
that it dammed back the down-flowing water and 
hindered its running off. The pease were here either 
sown in the same way as we sow our crops, or also 
in rows. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 2O9 

Belagenheten af Byarna. 

The arrangement of the villages, or a Parish, was com- 
monly thus. The houses, Gardarna, were built all in 
one row, sometimes quite close together, sometimes 
farther apart. On one side, about and alongside of the 
village always lay the common pastures and heath or out- 
lands, betes och utmarker, and on the other their 
gardens, ploughed fields, meadows and inclosed pastures, 
beteshagar. On the side where the out-land was, 
there always went a road, gata, or way close to and along 
the village [the Back Lane]. 

Sometimes there were seen cherry-trees, walnut-trees, 
beeches and such like trees planted outside the gates, yet 
not thickly. 

On the other side of the village where the arable 
fields, &c, lay, there was nearest to the house their 
kitchen-garden or flower-garden. After that came the 
ploughed fields, commonly, but not always, for they 
alternated with meadows and pastures. All these were 
fenced and inclosed with hedges, which consisted mostly 
of hawthorn, but mixed with that were sloe-bushes, 
Starkebars-buskar, blackberry-bushes, Bjornbars- 
buskar, Dog-rose, Tdrne, ivy, holly, Agrifolium, [Ilex 
Aquifolium], ash, Ask, lime, Lind, willows, Salices, 
oaks, Ekar, bird-cherry trees, Fogel-kirsbars-tran, 
[not Prunus Padus the bird-cherry, but Prunus Avium, 
the Gean\ and often a number of large beeches, Bokar, 
etc. In some places the [T. I. p. 211] farms lay on 
the hills, in other places in the dales, so that on that 
point there was no certainty. Some villages, however 
did not lie in this fashion, in particular those which were 
in Vale Land,* 'but the houses were there built, for the 

* Vale Land, low-lying plains on the Gault clay outside the chalk 
range, as the Vale of Aylesbury, and that which lies spread to the view from 
Dunstable Downs and Ivinghoe Beacon. [J. L.] 

P 



2IO KALM S ENGLAND. 

most part scattered, as in a town, but much farther apart. 
Ploughed fields and fenced inclosures appeared there on all 
sides. A number of different kinds of trees were planted 
both in the villages in front of the houses and along the 
streets, and round about outside the villages, which all 
served as an ornament for the village or the parish, which 
lay as in a garden, and as a shelter, skygd, against 
blasts or cold winds, which in Vale Land played over the 
large open fields.* 

Hostackar. Haystacks are used here in England 
everywhere, in Essex as well as in Hertfordshire and else- 
where, where I have been. I hardly ever saw any lidlada, 
* hay-lathe,' on the meadows. Thus, they had the hay 
also at home at the farms almost more in stacks than in 
hay-sheds. The shapes of the English hay-stacks was 
in all places the same, that is to say, they had the shape 
of a house standing by itself, or of a hay-lathe on the 
meadows with us in Sweden, yet the thatch is a little 
steeper ; and the lower half which resembles walls, is 
ordinarily made so that it slopes more and more inwards 
the nearer it gets to the ground, so that the eaves of the 
thatch on the sides, and the higher gable at the gable 
ends (which as I have before compared it to a house, I 
may now call them) project, which is done entirely that 
the wet and rain may injure the hay less. On the top 
these stacks are commonly well thatched with wheat straw. 

A hay stack is made here (Little Gaddesden) in the 
following manner : — 

When the hay is quite dry, it is carried to [T. I. p. 212] 
the place where the stack is to be made, after which 
the hay is laid in the aforenamed four-sided house-like 
form, and is well trampled. 

When the hay-stack has quite got its right shape, 

* Alas I these are nearly all inclosed. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 211 

like a house with a span-roof, they begin to thatch it 
with wheat-straw, which is effected thus : A little above 
the thatch-foot of the hay-stack, a hole is stuck here and 
there horizontally all the way along the roof of the stack 
with a kapp or " rick-peg ; " thereupon long wheat-straw 
is taken, at one end of which is made a fold or twist, 
et veck, and the straw is twisted tightly together by the 
twist. The highest part of the straw, or the twist, is 
then stuffed into the holes which have been made in the 
hay, with the rick-peg, by which means it is fastened. [Here 
is a figure.] When the straw has thus been stuffed into 
the hay, a whole row along the roof, hela raden langs 
ofver taket, they begin a foot or more higher up, to do 
likewise along the whole roof, taking care that this row 
is parallel [T. I. p. 213] with the former or lower, when 
this stuffed-in straw covers over the upper ends of the 
lower rows. They continue thus to stuff in the straw 
into the hay as far up as the ridge or the highest top of 
the roof, when in every case the upper straw covers the 
ends of the lower. Along the ridge, which resembles a 
roof-ridge, kroppas, there are first laid brackens, 
Ormbunkar, and then straw on those, which is fastened 
at the summit, thus : Two long split-sticks or " rods," 
langa spjalkor eller sprator, are laid over the straw 
along and on opposite sides of the roof or thatch, which are 
fastened with many rick-pegs ; as the accompanying Figure 
shows. The rick-pegs are knocked down into the hay, 
so that the crook at the top presses down the " rods," 
spjalken, and holds the straw fast. [It is not necessary 
to reproduce the figure. J. L.] 

On both sides, at the gables from the highest ridge 
down the edge of the thatch there are laid long rods which 
are in the same way fastened with similar "rick-pegs" 
which hold fast the straw and prevent the wind from 
carrying it away at the edges. 



212 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

I have asked several old farmers and labourers why 
they do not use lathes, lador, here to keep the hay in ? 
They have answered that they considered haystacks, 
when they are well thatched with straw far better than 
lathes (haysheds). The reason they gave was that when 
the hay is laid in lathes, the part of it which lies nearest 
to the walls, 6 inches or a foot from the wall commonly 
becomes spoilt, musty and mouldy, skamt, unkigt OCh 
mogligt, loses its beautiful scent, so that the cattle 
will not eat it at all willingly, but on the other hand in 
the stack it retains its sweet and fragrant scent, is eaten 
by the cattle very greedily, and it is only the outer surface 
of the uncovered part which takes a little harm from 
rain, but is for all that not so bad as that which is laid 
next the wall in the lathe. All the hay, which was set in 
stacks in the parts [T. I. p. 214] of England where I 
travelled, is not taken out of the stack in the same 
manner as is usual with us in Sweden, viz. : that one 
tears off the highest first and so continues downwards, 
but all this hay is cut out of the stack with a ' hay 
knife ' specially made for the purpose, which is done in 
this way : When they require any hay out of the stack 
for the cattle, they begin to cut at one of the gable ends 
of the stack first, that is to say, they begin at the highest 
ridge or top to cut loose slices, flingor, of about 2 feet 
broad or more, just as they please. Thus it is continued 
with the cutting, across the whole gable end from above 
downwards, as it is required. On this cutting, skarning, 
it was noted, that it is not cut perpendicularly down, but 
the lower one gets, so much the more it is cut sloping 
into the stack, so that the upper part of the stack where 
one is cutting overhangs the under, that the hay in the 
stack may not take any harm from wet. In this way the 
stack is cut to pieces until there is hardly any more hay 
left. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 213 

The English haystacks have also the advantage that 
they do not take harm from rain, whether they are touched 
or not. Against which the Swedish way compels one 
either to take in the whole stack at once, or runs the 
risk that bad weather will injure it, after it has once been 
robbed on the top, not to mention that the structure of 
the English haystacks in every way obviates the wet, 
which the Swedish on the other hand seems rather to 
assist. Moreover, the English farmers also think that 
the hay thus cut in little billets doux from the stack, 
skurit litet i Sander fran stacket, smacks much 
better to the cattle, and is more readily eaten by them ; 
and retains its fragrant scent longer, than if they were 
to tear the stack to pieces all at once ; when at least a 
great if not the greater part of the hay's delightful 
fragrance would disappear and be lost. 

[T. I. p. 215.] Sain Foin was sown in one or another 
enclosure ; we saw sometimes whole fields sown with it, 
and that always in broad-land. No sheep or other animal 
had pasture on it this year, for which reason it was now 
standing beautiful enough, grew mostly in clusters, 
klasar, and was now a couple of inches high. The 
place where it grew lay towards the morning sun, but 
a great quanity of mosses had rooted in it in the 
vacant spaces between this Sain Foin. The soil was 
the same as everywhere about here. When this has 
once been sown, it can remain for fifteen, eighteen or 
twenty years' time, if it is only manured every third year, 
on the ground where it grows. 

Clover was sown in one and another inclosure, tappa, 
and that always in broad-cast-land. On the places which 
seemed to have been sown the past year, it stood very 
green, thick and beautiful, an inch or two high. On 
older places it was somewhat thinner, but nevertheless, 
of the same height. 



214 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Lucerne is not sown at all in this district because they 
think that it is not worth while. 

SkogS-lundar. Woods appeared here and there. 
They consisted of all kinds of trees growing wild here in 
England ; for of Scotch Fir, barr-tra, I have not seen 
any where I travelled in Essex and Hertfordshire, except 
those which had been expressly planted out near houses, 
and in some places on the fields, pa falten. Beeches 
were, however, the principal trees in the woods, and in 
this district grew in considerable quantities. Fogel 
Kirsbar (Primus avium), the Gean, lime, Lind, Ash, 
hazel, oaks, willows, poplars, hawthorn, dog-rose, 
Torne, sloe, ivy, blackberry bushes, maple, Lonn, and 
many others, often vied with each other in numbers. The 
hornbeam, Afvenbok, was here [T. I. p. 216] very 
rare. 

On all sides of these woods lay either arable fields, 
meadows, pastures, orchards, commons or outlands, 
utmarker, or villages. Holly and Laureola Semper- 
virens [Daphne Laureola], also ivy, which clambered up 
the trees, adorned these woods with their beautiful 
green leaves. 

I saw one and another group of blackberry bushes 
which retained its green leaf the whole winter, although 
some of them had become brown and as if burnt, 
bruna och lika som branda. Furze showed itself 
among them, and might at a distance lead one to believe 
that it was a Juniper, so like is it. Its natural soil is 
high-lying, dry, and sterile sandy plains and hills. 

Mullvadar. Moles are found in great number in 
Essex, as well as in Hertfordshire, and often cause the 
farmers great damage. I saw in several places in Essex 
one mole hill, Mullvadshogen, beside another, and 
that in great abundance, and mostly on the arable fields. 
Here in Hertfordshire also, a multitude of their upcast 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 215 

hills appeared. They do not avoid any earth which is 
dry. In Essex they had their abode under the soil, 
Svartmyllan, even so in Hertfordshire ; but then I 
also saw here in Little Gaddesden that they cast up 
their hills in bare chalk in a ploughed field on a chalk 
hillside. They are commonly caught here with a 
particular kind of trap, f&llor, which is set out for them 
in their hole. The farm servants frequently amuse them- 
selves by setting these traps, giller, for them, because 
the farmers, or their employers, pay them a certain 
price when they deliver to them so and so many moles, 
sa OCh sa m&nga Mullvadar, at a time. Therefore 
they collect them diligently, and hang them up in 
bundles, till they can reach the [T. I. p. 217] desired 
quantity, when they show the same to their master and 
get the promised reward. Farther on, these mole-traps 
shall be described and illustrated. 

[This promise was never fulfilled], 

Aker-renar. 'Acre-reins,' Balks, were found in 
some arable fields, but very seldom. The breadth ot 
them was a Swedish ell, two English feet. These were 
only on the larger [open] fields, and served as boundaries 
between the farmers' strips, tegar. 

Akrarna. The arable fields were almost everywhere 
divided into small inclosures, tappor, always with living 
hedges around them instead of fences, gardesgard; but 
where the hedges were cut down, a dead-fence, or 
gardesgard, was set up till a new hedge grew up. 
Commonly, nearly all these inclosures were quadrilateral, 
only they sometimes resembled squares, quadrater, 
sometimes oblongs ; yet they had ako sometimes some 
other figure, as, one somewhat circular, trapeziform, &c, 
but these were, neverthelesss, scarce enough. 

Angarna och beteshagarna. The meadows and 



2l6 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

pastures were divided in the same manner, mostly of 
similar size and figure. The greatest part, if not all of 
them, have formerly been ploughed fields, and become 
per ordinem successionis ploughed fields again, because the 
English custom, for the most part, is by turns, to lay 
down ploughed fields to meadows, and meadows to 
ploughed fields. 

The greater number of these were so overgrown with 
mosses, Bryum, Hypnum, that our most moss-grown 
meadows in Sweden could scarcely be worse. What the 
reason of this may be I know not. Sheep pasture, g& i 
bet, on a great part of these the whole year, day and 
night, in dry and wet. May not their trampling, and 
baiting, as the ground is often wet enough, cause the 
grass to be damaged [T. I. p. 218] as well as destroyed 
at the root, and worn away, fortynat ? or is the land 
very favourable for mosses ? I believe so ; for a ground 
does not lie here long after it has ceased to be worked 
with the plough before it becomes overgrown with mosses. 
May not the leaf-trees planted round about contribute 
somewhat to this ? It seems very likely, for one com- 
monly sees that the moss keeps to places near and 
under leaf-trees, and rather in their shade, especially on 
the north side of them, whence it extends farther and 
farther out on the land. I saw, however, here and there 
one and another inclosure, tappa, which was almost 
entirely free from them, and in these the grass growth was 
thick and very beautiful, and when I looked more closely, 
dung or manure was spread out over the grass-sward on 
these places. 

Arter. Pease were thrashed in some places even at 
this season. In a large barn, sades-lada, which was 
built of itself, far from other houses, in the fields, akrar, 
we saw a large stack of pease-straw, artlialm, still un- 
thrashed. It consisted of the kind of peas here called Maple 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 217 

Pea* and was used as food for swine. The pease-straw 
stack had the same shape as the haystacks hereabouts, 
that is to say, it resembled a holada, hay -lathe. Its 
length was 20 feet, breadth 16, height at the sides 4 feet 
6 inches, but in the middle of the gable-end, or up to the 
ridge, as it were, 10 feet. On the top it was thatched 
with wheat straw. Round about it was fenced in with 
sloe, omgardad med Slan, which was set close beside 
it, and prevented the cattle from coming near it. 

Rof-k&ls eller Rof-blads nytta til Sallad eller 
Gron-kal. 

Turnip-tops used for Salad or as Greens. 

It is well known that here in England [T. I. P. 219] 
it is the custom to sow turnips on the ploughed fields as 
fodder for sheep ; on which they go and bait — of which 
more further on. The turnips consequently stand in the 
fields at this time of year. The women are in the habit 
of cutting off the young delicate leaves, klena bladen, 
which shoot out at this season, and prepare them in the 
same way as we prepare spinach, Spinat, in Sweden, 
with a little butter, and eat it so with their roast meats, 
Stekar. One who has not eaten it would have difficulty 
in imagining what an agreeable and well-flavoured dish, 
ratt, this is. They said that the turnip leaves are 
no use at any other time of year but this, for that 
purpose. 

Igelkottar. Hedgehogs are found in this district 
wild. The carls brought me one, which they had taken 
on the ground, and which afterwards quietly decamped, 
practicerade Sig Ut, through the door at night. An 
old farmer told me that they suck the milk from cows, 



* Still called " Maple Pea," 1886. [J. L.] 



2l8 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

when they lie down on the ground, and otherwise do them 
harm. * 

Ko-dynga. Cowdung was carried and arranged in 
small heaps close beside each other on the arable fields, 
but still unspread. It consisted mostly of straw-litter, 
halm-byssja ; for here it was the practice to spread a 
quantity of straw out on the farm-yard under the cattle, 
where they lie ; which straw is afterwards shovelled to- 
gether, skattas tilhopa, into heaps, left to lie and rot 
a little, and is afterwards carried out on to the fields. This 
dung thus carted out, will, after a few days, be spread 
out, ploughed down, and the land sown with barley or 
turnips, Korn eller Rofvor. 

Grindar. Gates are used in nearly all inclosures, 
tappor, through which one may drive a horse, kdra 
med hast, or drive sheep, eller drifva F&ren. The 
height of the gate was seldom over 3 or 4 feet, often it 
was in a deplorable state. Every inclosure had com- 
monly one such gate. One [T. I. p. 220] was obliged to 
lift it tip and back again. Otherwise, where a footpath 
ran through any inclosure, there was commonly in the 
hedge a stile, klif-statta, in some place, over which 
one could go ; for the hedges which consisted of prickly 
hawthorn, deprived one of the pleasure of climbing or 
forcing his way over or through them, but one must go 
through the gate or over the stile. 



* "' Hertfordshire Hedgehogs? This proverb seems to have no other 
meaning than that of pointing out the number of hedgehogs found in this 
county. Hedgehogs are harmless animals who. from the vulgar error of 
their sucking cows, have, time out of mind been proscribed, and threepence, 
or a groat, paid for every one of them brought dead or alive to the church- 
wardens, by whose order they are commonly gibbeted on one of the yew 
trees in the churchyard," &c. Fras. Grose, Local Proverbs, app. of Prov. 
Gloss. Lond., 2nd Ed., 1790, 8vo. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 219 

The ist April, 1748. 

Agrifolium Raj. Syn. 466. [Ilex Aquifolium.] Holly 
had grown by itself in some places here at Little Gaddes- 
den, close in front of the houses, on the green, pa betes- 
marken. Those living near had constantly clipped off 
the same expressly, so that this tree did not get to grow 
high, but spread out with its branches to a considerable 
width. The reason why they thus clipped it was that 
the women might get to lay their linen, which they had 
washed, on it to dry, for which purpose these trees were 
now very useful. 

Sag-stallen. Saw-pits, where they sawed asunder 
trunks of trees and logs, stackar och klabbar, into 
boards and other things, they had here in England at 
most farms, and made in a very handy way. Instead of 
having Sag-baekar, sawyers' trestles, as we have in 
Sweden, on to which we must with much difficulty lift 
the stocks or trunks we wish to saw to pieces, they have 
here dug a pit down in the earth of a fathom's depth 
more or less. The length of the pit is commonly 6 to 
8 feet, the breadth 3 to 4 feet. Internally it is commonly 
lined with boards, so that the earth may not fall down 
into it from the sides. 

De Sagar . The Saws, which are commonly used here 
consist of a broad saw-blade, sag-blad [T. I. p. 221], 
with handles, handtag, at both ends. One carl stands 
therefore down in the pit, and the other [the top sawyer] 
above, each of whom holds his end of the saw. They 
have the stocks rolled across the pit, when they wish to 
saw it across, or along the pit, when they wish to saw it 
into boards. They thus avoid having to lift the stocks 
up into the Sag-backar, or high frames. When any 
carpenters or others buy a whole beech in the woods or 
in any of the fields, they first saw it off close to the 



220 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

ground, and when they have thus got the tree down they 
do not incur the cost of carrying the tree home whole, as 
it had fallen, but they saw it into smaller pieces on the 
spot where it grew, dig there a pit 6 feet deep, or of the 
shape which has just been described, where they saw the 
tree to pieces, or to boards, or whatever they wish. 

Sniglar. Snails can often cause great damage on 
arable fields and meadows. Mr. Ellis showed me yester- 
day a letter which he had received from a learned and 
experienced gentleman, who has a great taste for Rural 
Economy, in which letter this gentleman relates that 
when he succeeded to his estate after his father's death, 
there was found on a brick wall, sten-vall, on his estate 
a dreadful lot of snails. 

In the morning before sunrise they were out on the 
grass and ploughed fields, where they did great damage. 
On one occasion he remarked that when the swine were 
turned out in the morning, and came to pass close to this 
wall, they left all other food and began only to seek for 
and eat these snails. From this, he concluded to send 
out boys in the morning, while the dew still lay heavily 
on the ground [T. I. p. 222], and collect them in baskets, 
and attempt to give them to the swine at home, when he 
had the pleasure of seeing how greedily the pigs ate them 
as if they had been their choicest food. He did not 
afterwards regret that he caused them to be collected 
every day, and fed the swine with them, for they not only 
became astonishingly fat, so that the hair fell off them, but 
when a pig, gris, which was fed on the snails, was killed, 
his flesh was found to be of the best possible flavour. 

Tegel-sten. Brick brayed into fine dust or meal is 
used here to scour or polish all kinds of iron or brass 
implements, &c, in a household, such as candlesticks, 
ljUS-stakar, snuffers, ljus-saxar, knife-handles, knif- 
skaft, tongs, eld tanger, &c. Some of this dust was 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 221 

laid quite dry in a cloth, with which the iron or brass 
utensils were polished. If this dust is wet, the utensils 
which are rubbed therewith become seruginous, argig, 
in consequence. 

The 2nd April, 1748. 

In the morning we walked about in [Ashridge] Park, 
which lay S.W. of and close to Little Gaddesden, and 
belonged to the Duke of Bridgwater, who lately died in 
early youth and left his estates to his sisters and young 
brother, who was only eleven years old. ["John, 2nd 
" Duke of Bridgwater, was born in April 1726, and died 
"in February 1748, unmarried. Francis, third and present 
"Duke of Bridgwater, and only surviving brother of the 
" last was born in 1736. His grace is not married (1775), 
" and, if he dies without legitimate issue, will be succeeded 
" by his cousin. . . . But he is best known by that 
" noble canal in Lancashire which takes its name from 
" him, and will effectually transmit it to future ages, 
" being by all accounts a work worthy of the ancient 
" Romans." The Complete English Peerage, Rev. F. 
Barlow, 2nd Ed. 1775, vol. I. pp. 225-6.] 

The Stone House itself, which was very handsome* 
lay in the midst of the park, from which there were 
prospects on four sides through the midst of the park, 
cut in straight lines.f The park consisted especially 
of lofty, thick and dense beeches, with some oaks 
mingled amongst them, blandad deribland, hawthorn, 
ash, X hazel, also appeared in it in some places. 

* The frontispiece of Todd's Bonhommes shows the north front, as it was 
in 1768. 

f These still exist, 1886. The Prince's Riding runs N.W. straight for 
\\ miles to Money Bury Hill. At its summit is the obelisk erected to the 
memory of Francis, 3rd Duke, whose likeness will be found on page 56 of 
Todd's Bonhommes. He died 8th March, 1803, unmarried. 
% Skelton in his Crown of Laurel has the distich : 

" Fraxinus in clivo frondet que viret sine rivo 
Non est sub divo similis sine flumine vivo." 



222 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 223.] Hjortars foda och nytta, &c. 
Deer's food and use, &c. 

We saw a very large number of deer, Hjortar, both 
large and small, which were kept in this park. Some few 
of them were snow-white, but the greater number of them 
were for the most part of a brownish grey or fawn colour 
similar to hares, Harar. A man who accompanied us, 
assured us that there were over 1,000 head, stycken, 
now kept here, and which we had no difficulty in believ- 
ing, in view of this, that we saw large herds, hopar, of 
them whenever we went in the park. In several places 
there lay cut down and laid for the deer, fresh young 
beeches, ashes, and hawthorn, from which they had 
gnawed, gnagit, the bark, so that these trees were now 
quite without bark. It was the ash, however, which of 
all trees was most laid for them, mast lagd for dem, 
and from which they gnawed most bark. These barked, 
afskalade, trees, after they had become dry, were an 
excellent fuel. 

In one place and another in the park there was a 
shed, hus, erected, which commonly consisted of a roof 
on posts under the middle of which there ran a long 
rack, hack, made of two hurdles which were tied 
together by their lower sides, so that the hay could be 
laid between them. Here the deer had their refuge in 
bad weather and got their fodder, foda, from the hay 
which was there spread for them in the racks, uti 
hiLckar. In the summer they got their fodder from the 
grass in the park, but in the winter from the hay which 
had with this object been carried in the summer into 
lathes, lador, of which there were several here in the 
park. It is well known that the male deer, hjort- 
hanarna, or stags, have horns, but the hinds, honarna, 
have not, and that the stags shed their horns once a 
year, when new ones grow instead. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 223 

It was also at this time of year that they began to 
shed their horns, falla sina horn. We saw some 
which now had only one, the other had already fallen off. 

The use which was made of these deer, djur, 
besides the pleasure the owner had of them, is that 
the flesh [T. I. p. 224] is esteemed a delicacy, while 
the skins are excellent for breeches, &c, the horns are 
in great request among various mechanics for knife- 
handles, and such like, together with this, that they are 
sold to apothecaries for their medicinal purposes. 

At forekomma hoets hopbrinnade. 

To prevent the spontaneous combustion of the hay. 
In one of the lathes, lador, when the hay was 
collected for the deer, a plan was shown to us, how they 
prevent hay which had been newly carried in, from 
taking any harm from spontaneous combustion, which 
was managed thus ; they knocked together square tubes, 
trummor, of four boards about 6 feet long more or 
less, and 1 foot square. These were set here and there, 
perpendicularly in the hay when it was laid in the lathe, 
i ladan, and were arranged so that the wind, by means 
of the hole they left came to play through the hay, by 
which means the warm vapour which causes the hay to 
take fire, finds an escape. These pipes are placed in the 
hay when it is laid in the lathe, and when it has been 
packed in they are drawn up, and leave a hole behind 
them through which the vapour ascends. Some use 
tubs, tunnor, or " well-frames " or " curbs " (?) 
f jalingar, for this purpose. In a similar manner these 
are used when it is necessary to place grain crops that 
are not thoroughly dry in barns or lathes, lador. 

Holada med tak, at lyfta up och ned. 

A Hay -lathe with a roof to lift up and down. 
Among other lathes, lador, in which the hay was 



224 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

kept for the deer, we got to see one here, which was 
made in a particular manner, that is, that when some of 
the hay which lay in it was taken away, the roof could 
be lowered after it, so that it nearly always lay close 
on to the hay when it was so desired. The plan was 
this ; they had driven down four posts, stalpar, in a 
square, one at each corner, horn. The length of the 
posts was 30 feet, the distance between two posts was 
14 feet. At the bottom, [T. I. p. 225 is occupied by an 
illustration] [T. I. p. 226] between these posts, there 
were made walls of oak boards which were nailed fast 
to the posts. 

The height of the walls from the ground was 8 feet. 
Above the board-walls there was a thatch-roof between 
the posts, which thatch suspended above the house was 
convex, and formed absolutely a half, octahedron, 
octagon, which, however, at the border had slightly 
oblong sides. 

The ' thatch-band ' or roof-plate, tak-banden, con- 
sisted of wooden bars, dovetailed into each other at 
the ends. They all went close outside the posts, so 
that the posts stood right in the angle which two 
sides of the roof-plate, tak-foten, made with each other. 
A crooked stick was afterwards nailed fast by one end 
to the one side of the roof-plate, and by the other end to 
the second side, which formed a right angle with the 
first ; yet in this way, that this crook came, as it were, 
to form at the corner a little triangle, of which the crook 
made one side, and the other two were formed of the 
two sides of the roof-plate, and the post ran right through 
the middle of this triangle. 

On others which I saw, the thatch-band or roof-plate 
went inside the posts, and the crook outside, just as they 
wished. In the posts were several holes, right through 
them, the one a little above the other. 




Jo 'fa.tos p. A a 4. • 



LITTLE GADDESDEX. 225 

When the thatch-roof is to be lifted higher up, a carl 
climbs up at each corner and lifts it up with his shoulders, 
when a thick iron pin is set in one of the holes, as high as 
one wishes to have it, on which pin the roof is then rested. 
When the roof was lifted up, the corners of the roof-plate 
went up close by the posts. If they wished to lower it 
further down, the pins were taken out, so that it gently 
descended as far as was desired. The thickness of the 
straw on the thatch-roof was 9 inches. The stack was 
now full of hay, loaded up to 4 feet below the roof. 

[T. I. p. 257.] Af hvadvaxterhoetharstadesbestod. 

What plants the hay in this place consisted of. 

As the grass-growth on the meadows and pastures at 
this time of year was so short and cropped by the cattle 
that I could not possibly distinguish the plants and herbs, 
de vaxter och orter, of which the grass sward here 
consisted, we devoted a couple of hours to ransacking 
the hay here in the lathes, and in seeking out and register- 
ing all kinds of plants which were found therein, that 
we might from that be able to judge of the goodness of 
the hay. I will, as far as practicable, place them in the 
order of their abundance, so that the plants, which were 
found here in the greatest numbers, have the honour to 
stand first, while those of which there were found the 
least of all, come to be left to the last. 

They were the following : — 

[1.] Lotus. Loti-corniculatce major species J [ohann] 
B[auhin]. Raj. Syn. 334. I could not find in what this 
differed from Lotus s. Melilotus pentaphyllos minor 
glabra C[aspar] B[auhin], which especially occurs with 
us in Sweden. A boy who was with us called it Lady- 
finger grass. [Anthyllis vulneraria, Kidney Vetch.'] I 
afterwards carried a plant of it home to Mr. Ellis, and 
asked if it was not his Lady-finger grass which he praises 

Q 



226 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

so beyond comparison, and sets before all other kinds of 
grass in his Modern Husbandman as, for, " in the highest 
perfection the most proper hay for feeding saddle-horses, 
deer, sheep, and rabbits, " as well as for " cattle," with 
many exalting words ? He answered that it was just the 
right and the same one, which he in the above-cited, 
and many other places, so highly praised. This is found 
among the hay in great abundance, and most of all its 
constituents. 

[2.] Rod Vapling, Red Clover, 615, in great abun- 
dance. [Trifolium pratense.] 

[T. I. p. 228.] [3.] Hvit Vapling, White clover 612, 
much, yet not so much as the foregoing. [T repens.] 

[4.] Kambexing, 81, Crested Dog's-tail grass, most 
of all the grasses. [Cynosurus Cristatus. Linn, writes 
Kamb-Exing]. 

[5.] Gramen lanatum, Dalech, Linn. Fl. Sv. 67, 
tolerably abundant. [Holcus Mollis.] 

[6.] Hundaxing, Rough Cock's -foot grass, 83, 
[Dactylis Glomerata], rivalled in numbers the preceding. 

[7.] Centaurea, 709, Jacea C.B. [Pin. 271] tolerably 
common. [Centaurea Jacea."] 

[8.] Lathyrus, 599. Sylv. C. B. [Pin. 344] some. 
[Lathyrus Sylvestris.] 

[9.] Phleum. Ang-Kampe, C at' s-t ail grass, 50, toler- 
ably abundant. [P. pratense.] 

[10.] Ang-hafre, 96, a little. [Avena pratensis.] 

[11.] Hieracium, Hawkweed, a sort thereof, with fol. 
lin. hirsut. some [probably H. umbellatum.] 

[12.] Festuca, 93. Some plants. [F. Rubra L. now 
F. ovina, var. rubra.] Fescue-grass. 

[13.] Chrysanthemum. Bellis Major, J. B., Ox-eye. 
Some plants. [C. Leucanthemum Linn. Syst. Nat., 1770, 
T. II., page 562.] 

[14.] Briza [B. Media], Quaking grass, some plants. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 227 

[15.J Agrostis Arist. maj. prat., some plants. 
[ ? A. Vulgaris, var. Aristata.] Bent grass. 

[16.] Serratula C.B. [Pin. 235. Linn. Fl. Sv. 660.] 
Some plants. [S. Tinctoria] Saw-wort. 

[17.] Linum Catharticum, 255. Some plants. 
Purging Flax. 

[18.] Vicia, Mus-arter, 605. [V.Cracca] some plants. 

[19.] Filipendula vulg. [C. B. Pin. 163. Linn. Fl. 
Sv., 404 Spiroea Filipendula] some plants. 

[20.] Plantago, 123, do. [P. Media.] 

[21.] Millefolium vulg. alb. C.B. [Pin. 140] one 
single plant. [Achillea Millefolium.] 

There were many we could not find here, although 
we searched long for them. The Papilionacece alone made 
almost double as much as the others. A part of the hay 
had become slighly musty, but much of it was uninjured, 
and smelt very good. 

At befria Sades-stackar for Moss. 

To prevent Mice from getting into ricks. 

In the Duke of Bridgewater's park we got to see a 
particular way in which to build stacks, so that mice 
shall not approach them, in that the bottom, botten, on 
which the rick stood, or " rick-staddle," was not down on 
the ground, but stood on pillars, pelare, 3 feet from the 
earth. The " rick-staddle," which was of wood, was 
either four-sided or round. It rested on eight or ten 
pillars, besides another ditto, which stood under the 
middle of the bottom, midt under botten. The 
pillars were square, built of bricks, each side 1 foot wide. 
The length of the pillars was 2 feet 6 inches. Upon each 
pillar in every case was laid a thick flag-stone or stone, 
halla eller sten, the " flat-stone" or the " resting- 
stone," which extended 6 inches on all sides beyond the 
pillar, and thus prevented mice from possibly reaching 



228 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

the stack. Upon these pillars the bottom was then laid. 
On some posts there was no such " resting-stone " on the 
top, but the upper part of the pillar was for the height 
of one foot covered on all sides with a thin polished 
sheet of brass, which also prevented the mice from climb- 
ing up, because they could not possibly get a foothold on 
this polished brass. These ricks had beyond that the 
advantage, that the wind got to play under them. On 
the top they were well thatched with straw. 

Vattu-Konst, at draga up vatten med. 

Hydraulic machine to draw up the water with. 
The above-mentioned duke's house was situated on 
one of the chalk ridges of this place, where there was no 
spring to get good water out of. Therefore they had caused 
a well, en brunn, to be dug down through the chalk ridge 
to a depth of very many fathoms [275 feet.] To get up 
the water out of the same, a large wheel was built, which 
had a thick axletree, around which there went a long rope, 
which had a large bucket, balja, fastened to each end, 
yet in [T. I. p. 230] this way, that when the one pail 
went up with the water, the other went empty down. 
Inside the great wheel a horse was led, who by his walk- 
ing inside the wheel drove it round, and thus the buckets 
were lifted up and down. The water was poured out of 
the bucket into great troughs, hoar, made of lead, from 
which it was afterwards led through leaden pipes and 
gutters to the places where it was wanted. 

* This is a very old well. It appears in an Inquisition made 20th 
October, 17 Eliz. [1575], before Sir Edmund Asshefyld and Richard Young, 
supervisors of Her Majesty's possessions. 

"Item. — Presentant insuper juratores. . . . Domus vocata the Well - 
House, cum appendicibus. Valet vendi vij^." Todd's Bonhommes, p. 63. 
Lond. 1823, Fol. 

" When the Earl of Bridgewater came into possession of the estate 
[1803] . . . there were remaining . . . the Engine House, which 
covered a well 275 feet deep." ib. p. 70. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 229 

Spanors forvarande. The saving of Chips. 

Just outside the- Duke's house a number of labourers 
were engaged in wood-cutting of different kinds, at 
slogda atskilligt. The chips, Spanorna, which 
resulted, were not left to lie strewn around on the hill, 
but it was the duty of one of the carls to gather them 
together and lay them up in heaps, which were mostly 
conical in shape, liknade coner, so to be left to dry, 
after which they were carried under cover, tak, to be 
afterwards used as fuel, til bransle. 

Trarotters och qvistars aktsamma samlande 
til bransle. The careful collecting of tree-roots and 
sticks for fuel. 

I have said before that this extensive park mostly 
consisted of large and lofty beeches, and many other 
trees. Here and there they had cut down some of them, 
and sold the smooth part, den slata delen, or sawn it up 
into boards, but those of which the stem had been knotty 
and uneven was cut up for firewood and piled up in cords, 
trafVat up i famnar, * either to be used for the duke's 
own requirements, or, principally, to be sold to those who 
lived round about the park, but had themselves no access 
to fuel. 

When the beeches and trees were cut down and felled 
to the ground, they were cut off close to the earth. Two 
or three years after that, the stub that had been left, den 
qvarlamnade stubben, together with all the roots 
proceeding from it, large and small, which one could 
find, was dug up, cut up into small pieces, and arranged! 

* Fathoms, ;i FAMN VED, corde de bois." Veste. Lex. [J. L.] 

f " Cord of Wood, a parcel of firewood 4 foot broad, 4 foot high. 

and eight foot long."' Bailey Eng. Die, 15th ed., 1753 — the date of Kalm's 

present, or 1st Vol. [J. L.] 



230 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 231] in four-sided oblong heaps, to dry. 
Their height was 6 quarters, or 3 English feet, and the 
breadth the same, but some of them were 3J ells long, 
7 English feet, others double as long, or 7 ells, 14 English 
feet. In digging up the roots they had been so careful 
sa noga, that among these heaps there lay a great 
many fibres of the roots, whose length was not over 6 
inches, and thickness not greater than a quill pen. These 
roots thus arranged were sold as fuel to those who lived 
some English miles round about. The twigs of the trees 
were carefully collected, cut into lengths of 6 inches and 
less, and bound in bundles, to sell in the same way to those 
who had not themselves any access to fuel. The Swedish 
wood vendors ought to consider this. 

R&g, hvartil den s&s oeh brukas. 

Rye, what it is sown and used for. 

An old farmer told me that they did not sow Rye 
here as food for people, but that it is sown in the 
autumn to be used the following spring, in April, as food 
for sheep, after they have first eaten up the turnips on 
the turnip-land, Roflanden. The sheep are then 
turned on to the rye-gratten, p& Rag-bradden, to 
gratten on it, till it becomes so short that they can 
find no more to eat. Some farmers afterwards leave 
the rye to stand and grow, and when it has become 
ripe, cut it, but most plough up the earth on which it 
has grown, and prepare it for wheat seed, when the 
sheep's dung, together with the rye-gratten, rag-brodden, 
becomes an excellent manure. 

Rofvors ratta ans. The right way to treat Turnips. 

Turnips are much sown here in England, as food for 
people as well as for all kinds of cattle, such as cows, 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 23 1 

swine, sheep, &c. To make them large, clever husband- 
men have the finesse, bruka kloke hushallare det 
grepet, to employ " Hoeing " about the turnips when 
they have come up after the sowing, and have attained 
some size, [T. I. p. 232] that is, they cut away a part 
of the sown turnips so as to leave 9 inches between those 
that are left, for this purpose they employ a hoe, en 
grafta eller hacka, whose blade is quite blunt and 
nearly straight at the end and nearly 6 inches broad. 
This space between the turnips, is so hacked up with 
this instrument that the soil becomes quite loose. In this 
loose earth the turnips increase so considerably, that 
they grow to a larger size than a man's head. They are 
afterwards used for different purposes, til atskilligt. 
The sheep are either turned on to the turnip-land, yet 
on to a small part, a little at a time, i Sander, by 
means of a fold, where they not only have an abundant 
fodder from the turnips, but also manure the same field 
considerably by their dung ; or the turnips are taken up 
as fodder for the sheep or other animals at home in the 
shed,i huset,orsold to such as have sheep or other animals 
to fatten, and so forth, so that they turn them to account 
in many ways. An old farmer told me that from a single 
" acre land,'' when the turnips grew somewhat quickly, 
he could commonly gain £14, -£i6to-£iS sterling profit, 
inkomst, only, however, if he had taken in this " acre 
land " at a certain time of year. Obs. The " hoeing 
instruments " which they used here in all places, exactly 
resembled the hackar, which they use in Sweden, e.g. 
at Ultima, for hoeing tobacco, which may perhaps have 
originally taken their pattern from here in England. 

Mr. Ellis's Four-wheel drill plough. 

In the afternoon I was at Mr. Ellis's, who then 
showed me the use of his newly invented four-wheel drill 



232 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

plough. He to-day sowed a little wheat with the same. 
The land was first well ploughed, harrowed, and laid out 
in broad-land. One carl went and drew the plough, and 
[T. I. p. 233] another went after and steered. The use 
of this plough was that in front was set a little plough- 
share, plogbill, which ploughed up the furrow into 
which the seed which is sown will fall. Immediately 
above this ploughshare, but farther back, was a little 
funnel, tratt, from whence the seed fell down behind 
the ploughshare into the furrow. Out of the funnel 
behind this fell the fine compressed manure on to the 
seed just sown, and last of all was set the harrow, which 
either had tines or iron blades, tinnar eller jam 
skallor, to harrow the seed again. In a word it was 
nearly of the same construction as that which Herr 
Probsten Vestback invented, and described in Kongl 
Vetensk. Acad. Handlingar. Mr. Ellis and I were not of 
the same opinion on this point. He flattered himself so 
much on his invention, that he also said that since Adam 
was made there has never been invented so useful an 
Instrument and Machine as this Drill-plough. I should 
too much weep for human-kind if this were true, for after 
Mr. Ellis had, with two carls, devoted the whole after- 
noon to using this plough, he had not succeeded in sowing 
a pint, en kanna, of seed. Scarcely was a half-furrow 
sowed before one was obliged to stand and attend to the 
plough. Now, the seed would not run ; now, the mould 
stuck fast in the hole at the bottom of the funnel ; now, 
the corn was not harrowed well down, so that there 
were here frictiones frictionum. Had man for all time 
past not been able to sow in a better manner than was 
done here to-day, mankind would long before this have 
died of hunger. I do not deny that if this plough is rightly 
worked and used, it may for some kinds of seed have its 
great service, as with pease, &c. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 



233 



Jarn-broddar. Iron Crampoom for climbing 
up trees with. * 

At the house of a labourer I to-day got to see a par- 
ticular kind [T. I. p. 234] of iron crampoons, which they 
use when they wish to climb up in any tree, either to take 
young squirrels, Ikorn-ungar, rooks'-nests, Krakbon, 
or anything else ; for as the trees here, for example the 
beeches, are for many fathoms in their lower part en- 
tirely without branches, and quite smooth, they can get 
up in no other way than by ladders, or with these cram- 
poons. The former were too costly, and difficult to 
carry everywhere with them, but the latter 
not so. Their shape can best be seen from 
the accompanying Figure, where C B A 
D shows the whole crampoon, which is 
of iron, and D E the strap or band by 
which it is bound fast to the leg. A B is 
the part of the crampoon which comes 
to be under the shoes, and on which one 
stands when one climbs up. The length 
of the space between A and B is just fitted 
to the breadth of the shoes. C is the 
very point of the crampoon, sjelfva uden 
pa bradden, which is always on the 
inner side of the foot towards the tree. 
The length from F to C is just two fingers 
wide. It is whetted as sharp as the 
sharpest and keenest knife's point that 
one may so much the better be able to 
strike into the tree with it. This point, 
udd, does not slope off in an acumen, like 




* "Crampoons {Crampons F.), pieces of iron hooked at the ends, for 
the drawing or pulling up of timber, stones, &c" Bailey, Eno Die, 15th 
Ed. 1753. 



234 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

the point of a knife, but is more obtuse, and more nearly 
resembles a small punch, hugg-b&rr, yet the point is 
not quite so obtuse, trubbig, but more oval. If it were 
as narrow-pointed as a knife, it could not then possibly 
be so strong, but would more easily break off. 

[T. I. p. 235.] Jarn-spik funnen midt i en tra. 

A n iron nail found in the middle of a tree. 

Some carls were engaged to-day in sawing up some 
stocks into boards. As they were sawing a thick log, 
klabb, of ash in half they could not for a time get the 
sawblade to advance much, but several teeth therein broke 
off. In the end, after they had with much trouble got 
the log sawn in two, and would look what the reason was 
that the saw stuck so, they found a large iron nail in the 
middle of the tree. It was on all sides so grown round 
by the tree, that we could scarcely see otherwise than that 
it had grown there, for there was no rottenness visible in 
the tree round it. It was probably knocked into the tree 
when it was young, and afterwards became thus sur- 
rounded and enclosed by the tree. 

The 3rd April, 1748. 

Kaniners slagt OCh gallning. The slaughtering and 
gelding of rabbits. 

Mr. Ellis told me that they here used to slaughter 
rabbits in the same way as a pig or other animal is 
slaughtered, viz., that they stick it in the throat and so 
tap out the blood, when the flesh will be much more 
agreeable than when they are killed in the usual way, 
with a blow on the nape of the neck, or as hares, Harar, 
are killed. He believed he was the first who had begun 
thus to take their lives by drawing off the blood. He 
also told me that he always caused some of the bucks to 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 235 

be castrated, because their flesh has a much better flavour 
than when they are left ungelt. 

Spisars skapnad. The shape of the hearth. 

There is almost more wood burnt by one farmer 
and labourer, Landtman, in England than by one 
Bonde, &c, in Sweden. England lies some degrees 
more to the south, which diminishes [T. I. p. 236] the 
cold in the winter time. Therefore it is not extra- 
ordinary that there is so great a difference between 
the winters in England and Sweden, so that while 
the cattle in Sweden, must be fed for seven or eight 
months in the stable, they here go out almost the 
whole year, winter and summer. Many would therefore 
not be able to imagine that the English cottages, 
Stligorna, in which the folk reside during the winter, 
were colder than the Swedish, and still less will anyone 
be able to believe that an English farmer, labourer, 
peasant, Bonde, Landtman, Torpare, or other, would 
burn as much if not more wood in the year than a Swede, 
especially because the winters here are so mild and 
short ; and moreover, that the districts in most places 
near London are very woodless, skoglos, but for all 
that this is in most cases, and in a certain way, true. 
I will name the reason. The fireplaces, spisarna, are 
here mostly built, in all the ways in which we build them 
in Sweden, only with this difference, that here they never 
use a spjall, or anything else in its place to retain the 
warmth ; but a spjall is to an Englishman who has 
never been out of England a thing so unknown, that it 
is difficult so to describe to him what a spjall is that he 
shall understand it. No, here all the warmth goes freely 
up the chimney ; windows, doors, roof, floor, &c, are not 
stopped or made tight, but the wind and cold get freely 
to play through them. There is no moss on the inner 



236 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

side or in the middle of the roof. Therefore it is not 
wonderful, if in the winter time it is as cold in as 
it is out. In this country in the farm cottages, foond- 
Stugorna, the fire-hearth, elds-harden, is commonly 
so low that it is a planum with the floor itself. The 
chimney places, spisarna, in these are also so large, 
that three or four stools can be accommodated within 
the chimney-place, spisen, on which they sit to warm 
themselves. As soon as the wind begins to be somewhat 
fresh, as it commonly is from and in [T. I. p. 237] a 
great part of October, till and in a great part of April, 
wood is for the most part burnt on the hearth from 
morning till evening. Round it the folk sit and warm 
themselves and when the cold is somewhat more severe, 
the women are seen sitting near the fire, without doing 
the least thing, more than prate, utan at gora det 
ringaste mer, an prata. Therefore, also it is not 
wonderful that an English farmer, &c, burns in the 
course of the year, as much if not more wood than a 
Swedish Bonde. The same can also be said about 
an English townsman, Borgare, priest, Gentleman, &c. 

The 4th April, 1748. 

In the morning we walked about over very many 
arable fields to make our notes on their mode of Agricul- 
ture, &c. 

Jordmon harstades. The soil hereabouts. 

I have said above that the whole of this district 
consists of bare hills. These hills are nothing else than 
solid chalk, for commonly when they dig 6 feet down 
into the earth, and often less, the chalk itself occurs, 
tager sjelfra kritbarget emot. The earth, den 
jord, which lies at the surface, is here everywhere of a 
brown colour, which inclines a little to yellow. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 237 

Akers-godning, saning med Rofvor, upkor- 
ning, etc. 

The manuring, sowing with turnips, and ploughing of the 
arable fields. 

In one place a farmer was engaged in ploughing up 
his field, at kora up Sin aker, which had before been 
manured and grown with turnips, &c. I asked him how 
he had treated this field ? He answered : Last year, in 
May, chalk was carried into it, together with a large 
quantity of dung, which is here mostly bare straw, and 
which was all spread out and ploughed down. In June 
the whole of this enclosure was sown with turnip seed. 
In September, at Michaelmas, the sheep were turned on 
to it, where they had since been, and baited, betat, till 
[T. I. p. 238] this day. When it was sown with turnip- 
seed, Rof-fr6, the field was laid out in broadland, and 
to-day, when it was being ploughed up anew, it was 
similarly laid out in broadland, in which they intended to 
sow barley this morning if the weather is fair. The 
sheep by their droppings, together with part of the half- 
rotted turnips, which have just been ploughed down, 
helped considerably to make the soil fertile. They first 
ploughed four to six furrows at both ends of the field, 
and across, tvars for, the same, and afterwards 
ploughed the whole field lengthwise, langs efter, so 
that all the other furrows stood perpendicular to the 
furrows at the ends, which the horses always trampled 
down in the turning. I asked the reason why he did not 
plough the furrows, which had been ploughed at the 
ends, last, as we do? The farmer answered that if he 
should have so dealt this morning with, som han i 
morgon torde vela sa, only a part of the field, for 
instance, as much as he will plough up to-day, then he 
would have been obliged to plough the long-furrows, 



238 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

lang-farorna, at the ends first ;* for it should be noted 
that in private enclosures, enskildta tappor, there are 
never any aker-renar, "acre-reins" or balks, in the 
midst of the field. Ditches, also, are never seen in these 
districts in the fields. The Inclosure looks inside as if it 
were only an aker-stycke, " field-plot" or "land," 
which may be large or small, therefore when he ploughs 
the furrows at both ends, he ploughs them at once from 
the one end of the field to the other, by which means the 
labour is lessened. Also, if he had to-day ploughed in 
our way, viz. : laid out the field first in furrows, and 
afterwards drawn the Cross-furrows, tvar-faror, at both 
ends, so as to plough up the land on which he turned 
the plough, or the " headlands," he would then only have 
been able to plough up a piece of the cross-furrows at the 
ends {i.e. of the headlands) ; that is to say, so much as 
answered to the part of the field he had ploughed up to- 
day ; through which he would have had more trouble 
than if he had driven the plough from one [T. I. p. 239] 
end to the other. 

The fields were ploughed deep enough (as is said 
to be the case) to extirpate the weeds. It was the Two- 
wheel single Hertfordshire plough that was used for all this 
work. 

For some purposes two horses were used ; for others, 
three; again, for others, four; but if the ground was 
hard, as many as six horses were harnessed to the plough. 
Here the horses are always set in pairs before the plough, 
that is to say, two abreast, and not tandem, as is practised 
in some places. Several experienced farmers said that 
the fields are not manured with chalk oftener than every 
sixteen, eighteen, or twenty years. The reason given is 
that where it is manured oftener, the earth becomes too 

* And would therefore have had to plough the ends twice over. [J. L.J 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 239 

dry, loose, and friable, lucker, but the field is always 
manured with other manure every third year, industrious 
farmers even manure it thus every year. 

Tra-verket i Plogarna. 

The wood-work in the ploughs. 

All the wood-work in the ploughs hereabouts was of 
ash, which is a very hard and tough wood, except the 
"mould-board," vand-bradet, which was mostly made 
of beech, because the ash is not always found of the 
thickness. 

Hum gamla Bok och Ek-stubbar, &c, 
upgrafdes, etc. 

How old beech and oak-stubs, &c, were dug up, &c. 

In one of the arable fields there was beside a hedge a 
long acre-rein, aker-ren, of 5 or 6 fathoms broad. Here 
and there, stood thick beech-stubs, B6k-Stubbar, and 
now and then an oak-stub, Ek-stubbe. The trees which 
had grown on these stubs were for the most part cut 
down two years back. Here a carl was now engaged in 
digging and hewing them up, which he did thus : — He 
first hacked up the mould on one side of the stub, 
together with all the small roots and fibres, which pro- 
ceeded from the same, with a mattock, yxa, of the shape 
shown in Fig. A. It was sharp and somewhat broad, 
[T. I. p. 240] at both ends, bat with this difference, that 
the edge at one end was turned in the same way as the 
edge of an ordinary cutting axe, hugg-yxa, and at the 
other end as in a hoe or adze, hacka eller skarf-yxa, 
though the shape of this mattock neither resembled a 
cutting axe nor hoe. All these loose cut roots were 
collected together, and laid in small heaps to dry. After 
that he began to cut the stub to pieces, which he did 



24O KALM S ENGLAND. 

thus : —He had a lot of iron-wedges, jarn-viggor, some 
of which he set in a row right across the middle of the 
stub, knocked in one after another, and by that means 
split the stump. 

Afterwards the carl continued to set one iron wedge 
beside another, according as the rift in the stub increased 
in size, up to as many as four or more wedges, side by 
side, by which the stub was more and more split, and the 
half of the stub, which began to widen out from the other, 
always went towards the side on which the carl had 
previously dug away the earth, and hacked up the roots, 
because there was not the same resistance as on the other 
side. 

As soon as he had thus got the stub tolerably broken 
to pieces, he used the iron hook, jarn-hackan, (see 
Fig. B.) which he called ' Dog,' so as further entirely to 
sever and break off the half stub. In doing this he hung 
the kook, haken, DBA, fast on to the cloven stub, the 
point A being in the rift itself. Next, a strong pole, 
Stang, also called ' Dog,' was set through the iron ring 
C D E, which pole was shod with iron at the end which 
is passed through the iron ring. At the end of this iron 
shoeing, jarn-skoningen, were two iron teeth, jarn- 
tander, by which the dog, pole, or stang* could be 
fastened into the stub. He then set this iron-shod end 
down in the ground, or near the roots of the stub, and 
began to bend the other end of the dog-pole, stangen, 
down, when the point A of the hook drew and split off the 
half which had been loosened by the wedges from the 
other half of the stub. In the above described way they 

* Stang, Hop-dog, S. An instrument "consisting of a long piece of 
' ' wood, to act as a lever, with a piece of iron at the end, standing out a few 
" inches, grooved, so as to make teeth to clasp the hop-poles and draw them 
"readily from the ground. S[ussex.] Also used in Kent." W. D. Cooper, 
Suss. Gloss. 2nd Ed., 1853. 




yTo fcutxs fo. it 40. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 24 1 

split the whole stub loose and to pieces. This dog was 
entirely, ring and hook, of iron. The diameter of the 
ring was 7 inches ; the length of the hook, kroken, I 
foot ; the breadth of the hook at B, where it was thickest, 
was 2 inches, and at the same part of the hook measured 
across, 1 inch, derstades pa hakan en turn. Inside 
the hook between A and B, were several scores, in- 
huggna skaror, so that it might get a better hold. 
After he had got up the whole stub, it was hewn and 
cloven to pieces for firewood. The reason, why the carl 
took up this stub was partly thereby to get firewood, 
partly and principally because he wished to take in this 
broad * rein,' ren, to the ploughed field. He told me 
also that many acres of land, manga, Acre-land, in 
many places hereabouts had been cleared and made into 
arable fields or meadows in the same way. 

He drove down the iron wedges with a wooden beetle, 
tra-klubba, [T. I. p. 242] and when he went home, he 
had two boards of the length of the beetle nailed together 
at the sides ad angulum rectum, which he laid like a roof 
over the mallet, so that it might not take any harm from 
the rain. 

Mass nog pa krit-jord. Moss enough on the Chalk-soil. 

I have said before (p. 237 orig.) that all the soil, 
jordmon, on this tract was nothing else than chalk- 
ground, krit-grund, none the less for that mosses will 
thrive incredibly on the same ; for nearly all meadows, 
acre-reins by the hedges, pastures, commons, utmarker, 
in a word, all grass land, which is not often remade, 
omlagad, and manured was so overgrown with mosses, 
Bryum and Hypnum, that our most moss-choked meadows 
in Sweden can scarcely be worse. We remarked that in 
some of these moss-grown places there were here and 
there green plats, plattar, of a luxuriant green grass, 



242 KALM S ENGLAND. 

which is ascribed to the sheep-dung which they may have 
dropped on these places, or to some other manuring 
thing. 

Huru Bokar fallas omkllll. How Beeches are felled 
to the ground. 

In this district the beech is 'the most plentiful of all 
trees. It is seldom cut down with an axe, but is sawn 
down with a long saw. The saw-cut is made quite close 
to the ground, or scarcely a hand's-breadth above the 
same. When somewhat more than half the tree has been 
thus sawn through, and it begins by its weight to press 
down on the sawblade so that it cannot be drawn for- 
wards or backwards, they drive in iron wedges into the 
kerf or rift, halet eller rannan, which the sawblade has 
made, and thus lift up the tree on one side, so that it 
cannot hinder the saw-blade by its weight. 

Bokars sonder-sagning och sag-spans nytta. 

The sawing up of beeches and the use of the sawdust. 

In one of the fields a carl was engaged in sawing up 
beeches into small boards [T. I. p. 243] to be used for 
shovels, skofflar. They had dug a pit, et hal, down in the 
ground, in the way which has been described on p. 220 
(orig.), over which they laid the stocks, stackarnar ; when 
they were sawing, one carl always stood down in the pit, 
gropen. The tree was sawed first into logs, klabbar, 
of 3 feet long, these again into such small and thin boards 
as were required. The logs which had been sawn across 
were stood up on end, so that the one end stood down on 
the earth and the other up in the air. The upper end 
was covered for nearly an inch thick with the sawdust, 
sag-span, which fell during the sawing. This was done 
with the object of preventing the log from forming any 
cracks or fissures from the sun. I asked whether this 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 243 

sawdust was used for any other purpose ? Several whom 
I asked about this gave me the answer that when it 
is dry, it is used as fuel, til bransle, and that it is 
sold in woodless districts ' per bushels ' or by the ton, 
tunntals, to be used for that purpose. 

Bokars &lder. The age of the Beeches. 

In one of the largest beeches which was here cut 
down we counted the sap-rings, saf-ringarna, to get to 
know the age of the tree, as well as to see how good the 
soil was to drive the tree quickly to size. Some four 
inches above the ground the diameter was 3 feet 6 inches 
exactly. We counted here eighty-six sap-rings, which 
showed that the age of the tree was eighty-six years. 
The innermost and outermost sap-rings were narrow 
enough, viz., from one-sixth to one-eighth inch thick, but 
at the time when the tree was about thirty years old it 
had made the strongest growth annually in thickness, for 
a single sap-ring was then often as much as half an inch 
thick. Seldom was there one under a quarter-inch thick, 
Foga var nagon under, &C, but they were com- 
monly between a quarter and half-inch. 

[T. I. p. 244.] It was very easy to measure the 
diameter of the stock, stocken, for it was cut down 
with the saw, med sag kullsagad. The length of 
this stock, from the large end to the little end, was 
29 feet 6 inches. The sap-rings were afterwards counted 
at the small end, when the age of the tree showed sixty- 
five years. The diameter was here 19 inches; 2 feet 
6 inches above where the tree was cut off near the root 
its diameter was 2 feet 8 inches. The periphery at the 
same place was 8 good feet. 

En eks alder. An oak's age. 

An oak stub was measured to see how old it was, 
when we found from the sap-rings that its age was forty 

R z 



244 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

years. Its diameter was i foot 5 inches. The sap-rings 
were very thick. The oak, according to the account of 
an old man, en gubbe, who owned the field, had been cut 
down for two years and carried away, so that we could 
not for that reason get to see its length. The soil of this 
tree was the same as has often been described above. 

Plinta jamn pa en sida. A flint even on one side. 

We found here a large piece of flint, which on one 
side was as even and flat as a board.* The breadth and 
length of this flat side was just a little more than, vid- 
pass litet mera an, 6 inches. . [2^ lines omitted.] 
. . The surface of this flat side was blended with a half- 
petrified chalk. That it may not be relegated to oblivion, 
I will now remind you that in this district round about 
Little Gaddesden there is not found any other kind of stone 
than ordinary flint and "Puddingstone," or conglomerated 
masses thereof, sammangyttringar deraf.f 

ArbetS-karlars skor. Labouring men's shoes.% 

The shoes which the labouring men [T. I. p. 245] 

commonly used were strongly armed with iron. Under 

the heel was set an iron which followed the shape of the 

heel, and somewhat resembled a horseshoe. g Round 

* These beds of tabular flint occur in the lower part of the upper 
chalk. [J. L.] 

•j- A man sinking a well in gravel near Bedale, Yorkshire, told me he 
came upon a " samman " at the depth of 25 feet, and on his showing it to 
me, it proved to be a mass of conglomerated gravel. Near London these are 
often called " Rock." [J. L.] 

\ Grose gives a proverb, " Hertfordshire clubs and clouted shoon," 
which latter, as Fuller observes, being worn by the tenants, enables their 
landlords to wear Spanish-leather boots and pumps. Grose. Local Proverbs, 
1790, 8vo. [J. L.] 

§ Clouted Shoon. " Cluta. C/oicted-shoes, or horse-shoes, also strokes 
of iron with which cart-wheels are shod." Bailey, Eng. Die, 1736, 15th Ed., 
1753, 8vo. " Clout, v. to piece or mend with cloth ox iron" F.Grose, 
Prov Glos., 2nd Ed., 1790, 8vo. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEX. 245 

about the soles were nails knocked in quite close beside 
each other. It was also knocked full of nails under the 
middle of the sole, far more than under our dalesmen's 
shoes, Dalcarlars skor,* so that they can go with 
these a long time before they are worn out. They had 
sometimes gaiters, 16sa stofvel-skaft, which were not 
fastened to the shoes, but were used in the same way as 
damascor with us in Sweden, only that these are strapped 
together on the outer side of the leg. 

Tegel af den gula jorden. From the reddish- 
brown earth inclining to yellow, which everywhere here 
lies immediately upon the chalk, they make and burn 
their bricks, Tegel, here. Some are said to make 
bricks of it without adding any sand. This yellow earth 
looks like a yellowish-red clay, gulrod lera, and is very 
tenacious and binding. 

In the afternoon we walked a long time about the 
arable fields and pastures with Mr. Williams, a farmer 
here in Little Gaddesden, who of all who lived here was 
indisputably the greatest Practicus in Rural Economy. 
He counted it a special pleasure to relate to me his 
different contrivances in farming economy, sina hvar- 
jehanda hushalds grep. When we got to see his 
arable fields and meadows, with their state and manner 
of cultivation we could not sufficiently admire them, for 
they excelled many fold both Mr. Ellis's and the other 
farmers' arable fields. Indeed, all that belonged to Mr. 
Williams out of doors and at home in all departments 
of Rural Economy was such that the others could not 
come near it. 

[T. I. p. 246.] Akrens godning. 

Manuring the ploughed fields. 
If practicable, and the season permits, he causes his 

* Dalecarlia is in Swedish, " Dalarna," the dales. [J. L.] 



246 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

labourers to manure his arable every year with the 
manure, which results from the cows, sheep, and horses, 
in the manner which shall be described further on. The 
time of year when he has this manure carried out is in 
the winter, on the days when the weather is such that he 
cannot use the horses for any other field work, aker- 
bruk. As regards manuring with chalk, he had the 
same story as has been mentioned above (p. 239 
orig.). 

Nedhuggna hackar til bransle. 

Cut-down hedges as fuel. 

When Mr. Williams cuts down an old hedge to make 
a new grow in its place, he employs, as is usual, part of 
the cut-down hedge for the erection of a dead fence ; but 
the other part, which is over, and is the most, be it twigs 
or thicker timber, qvistar eller tjockare virke, he 
has cut shorter, to 3 feet or 4 feet long, binds it into 
small bundles, and sells as fuel to the surrounding 
inhabitants who have need of such, or it is left for pay- 
ment of the day labourers and such like folk who work 
for him,* til betalning at dagsverks-karlar, som 
arbeta hos honom. For two or three logs of the 
larger timber, each of which is little thicker than an arm, 
he gets as much as for a bundle of twigs, en knippa af 
qvistar. 

Art-land. Pease land. 

We accompanied Mr. Williams over one of his arable 
fields, which was entirely sown with different kinds of pease. 
The field consisted of 10 acres of land, Akern bestod af 
10 acre land. The pease were now getting on for 3 inches 
high. When the pease stalk is 3 or 4 inches long, a 

* Payment in kind is not even yet wholly extinct, as in the neighbour- 
hood of Kelso. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 247 

roller is driven over the field to make it flat. He said 
that the pease take no harm at all from it, but it is useful 
to them. Part of these had been sown for eight weeks. 
Maple Pea for about three ditto. 

[T. I. p. 247.] Vicioe, Tares, &c, sown for horses. 
On several arable plots, aker stycken, they had some 
Vicioe or Vicker, Vetches, of different kinds. One of 
these sorts was much praised. They were sown there 
last autumn on broadland, and had the peculiarity that 
they endured the winter cold, and were already nearly 
three inches high. In the month of May he has them 
cut, and gives the green stalks, halmen, to the horses, 
for which they are very wholesome. This purges them 
and makes them fat and in good condition. After they 
have thus been cut in May, they stand and grow, either 
to be again cut once more towards autumn, or to be left 
for seed. 

One and another large arable plot was also sown with 
clover, which now stood very beautiful and green. 

Gropar der de fordom tagit Krita. 

. Pits, where they formerly have taken Chalk. 

We saw in several places in the fields, and also on the 
pastures, large deep pits, where in former days they have 
taken chalk, either for manuring the fields or for some- 
thing else. In most of such old pits, not only was the 
bottom overdrawn with thick grass sward, but in some 
stood high and thick beeches. On all the hill slopes, 
backar, round about this tract such old pits appear. 
Bokar skadeliga for hackar. 
Beeches injurious to hedges. 

Everywhere here in the hedges round about the arable 
fields there grew large and high beeches. Many inclosures 
were so surrounded by them, as if by a hedge. Mr. 
Williams said that these did the arable field little service, 



240 KALM S ENGLAND. 

partly because with their widely outspread roots they 
drew the nourishment, fodan, both from the crops sown 
on the arable, and from the other trees in the hedge, 
partly and principally that by their shade, and the drop- 
ping of the water from their branches [T. I. p. 248] and 
leaves, they, as it were, killed the hedges and trees which 
grew under them, of which, hvarpa, plain proofs were 
everywhere visible, for under all these trees the hedges 
were very poor and thin, lisle OCh glese, not to mention 
that these, by their shade, incredibly furthered the growth 
and increase of the mosses, especially in the meadows and 
pastures lying on the north side of them, where it was 
always found that the moss under their shade throve best 
of all, and thence afterwards extended along the surface 
of the ground. But the farmers must endure this, for 
they had not liberty to hew down so useful, and for the 
country so ornamental a tree, more than was absolutely 
necessary ; because few of the farmers owned the farms 
they lived upon themselves, but rented, arrenderade, 
them from others. 

Sot til godsel. Soot as Manure. 

Several arable fields were shown us just sown with 
wheat, on which Mr. Williams had soot strown as manure. 
He had bought it in London, and conveyed it from thence 
hither, so that it had cost him tenpence a bushel before 
he got it here, which cost however he did not grudge, for 
he reckoned soot as one of the choicest manures on the 
field. He had also strown some of it over the grass-sward, 
grasvallen, on some of the small enclosed meadows, 
which he said was partly because it was very manuring, 
and partly because the mosses were destroyed by it. 

Ek-bark at Garfvare. Oak bark for Tanners. 

About three or four weeks after this, they begin to fell 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 249 

oaks, and strip, fla, the bark off them to sell to tanners. 
They now get commonly a shilling for a yard of it, that is 
of the bark, ' stapled,' upstaplad, or piled up in the 
cubic yard. 

Bok och Ek-ollon til foda for Svin. 

Beech and Oak mast as food for Swine. 
From the Beeches which here grew in abundance, 
were collected [T. I. p. 249] annually a great number of 
beechnuts with which the swine are fed, who flourish and 
grow very fat on them. In the same way, acorns are 
gathered as food for pigs ; yet they do not willingly eat 
acorns as their food as against beech-nuts, dock 
spisa de samma i godhet til deras foda ej up 
emot B6k-ollon. Some lost a great many swine last 
year, which happened through this, that they gave them 
acorns to eat before they had lain any time, and had, as 
it were, been prepared for food, through which the swine 
died. This could never happen with beech-nuts, which 
they can eat without harm as soon as they fall down 
from the tree. 

Genista Spinosa at branna tegel med. Furze [Ulex 
Europaeus] to burn bricks with. 
I have said before (p. 199 orig.) that they almost 
everywhere in these woodless districts use Genista Spinosa 
Vulgaris, Raj. Syn. 475, as fuel in fireplaces, i spisar. 
Mr. Williams now told me that it is also used in this 
district to burn bricks with, when they collect it in 
small bundles, dry them, and during the brick-burning 
stuff these bundles into the brick-kiln, instead of other 
wood. I also saw afterwards at the brickyard, which 
belonged to the Duke of Bridgewater, that this, like the 
brackens, was collected and arranged there in heaps by 
the bundle, lagd der i hdgar knipptals, so as to 
use it as fuel during the brick-burning. 



25O KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Aska til godsel pa angar. Ashes as manure on meadows. 

Mr. Williams had strown ashes over the grass-sward 
in one and another of his meadows, partly to destroy 
the moss, partly by this means to increase the growth 
grasvaxten, for he counted ashes as a beautiful 
manure on meadows. 

Dikes-jord til godsel. Ditch earth as manure. 

Down in a dale a ditch had newly been thrown out. 
The earth, jorden, which had been taken out of it, was 
arranged in heaps alongside of the ditch, to [T. I. p. 250] 
lie some time, but afterwards it would be carried out 
on to the ploughed field, spread out, and blended with 
the other soil of the ploughed field, &ker-mullen, as a 
manure. This earth which was dug up out of the ditch, 
diket, was mostly a beautiful soil, en skon svart- 
mylla. 

Nyttan af the two-wheel double Hertfordshire 
Plough, eller den tvahjulade dubbla Hertfordshire 
plogen. 

We afterwards accompanied Mr. Williams home to 
his farm, where he showed us the two- wheel double 
Hertfordshire Plough which no one else besides himself 
in the whole of Little Gaddesden had. It is well-known 
that this plough consists only of one plough-beam, plog-as, 
but on this beam there are two ploughs, the one before 
and the other behind, den ena framfdre, den andra 
bakefter. Plog-asen, the plough-beam makes a bend, 
en krok, between the two ploughs, through which it 
happens that each plough ploughs a separate and new 
furrow, so that the latter plough turns over its furrow 
on to the furrow which the first plough has made. Thus 
this plough casts up two furrows at one time, and, as all 
wheat fields hereabouts are mostly laid out in two-bout- 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 2$I 

lands or what they here call four-thorough-stitches* i.e., 
ridges, ryggar or " rigs " consisting of four furrows, so 
this double plough effects the saving of labour, that 
while others must plough twice forwards and twice 
backwards, to make such four-thorough-stitches or riggs, 
consisting of four furrows, it is not necessary with this 
plough to plough more than once forwards and once 
backwards, when the field similarly becomes so arranged. 
Mr. Williams showed me quite large ploughed plots 
&ker-stycken, which he had laid out with this plough 
in two-bout-lands. When this plough is used, three pair 
of horses must always be set before it, whereas before 
other ploughs no more than two pairs or less, are required. 
[T. I. p. 251.] The field ought also to be very loose 
and dry, where this plough is to be used ; for if the field 
is not loose and dry, Mr. Williams said he never uses it, 
because it then becomes so heavy that no horses can 
draw it, &rka draga den. The plough-beam and wood- 
work should also be very strong, if it is otherwise to stand 
the work, om den annars skal halla. In a word, in 
loose soil and sandy earth, uti 16s-mylla och sandjord, 
this is of great service, but not so in clay, lera, and 
hard fields. 

Halm af Korn, Hvete, Arter, Bonor, etc., til godsel, 

Straw of barley, wheat, pease, beans, &c, as manure. 

Here and there in his farm yard, fa-gard, there stood 
racks, haokar, under the open sky to lay fodder, foder, 
in for the cattle. The racks were made of two long 
hurdles, grindar, such as are used in Sweden in the 
stalls for horses, to lay their hay in. Two such long 
hurdles were fastened together at their lower ends, and 



* " One bout" is once up the field and back. " Four thorough stitches," 
=" four-furrow stitches." [J. L.] 



252 KALM S ENGLAND. 

the upper ends widened out from each other so that 
they thus formed a rack, en hack, in which the fodder 
could be laid. This rack stood upon two trestles, 
b&ckar, of wood, viz. : one under each end, of such a 
height as was most suitable for the cattle to be able to 
reach up to the fodder. In these racks was laid straw 
of wheat, barley, oats, pease, or beans, as well as hay, 
of which the cows and sheep got to eat at nights. The 
cows stood at home the whole winter, day and night, 
and. ate of the fodder in these racks when they would ; 
for they went loose in the farmyard, but the sheep were 
only at home in the yard when it was rainy and bad 
weather, for otherwise they were folded, fallacies, at 
nights out on the arable fields or went in the inclosures. 
Of this straw in the rack the cattle, Kreaturen, ate 
part, and part they drew down under-foot, which was 
afterwards spread out over the whole farmyard, and 
was left for them to lie and trample upon. 

[T. I. p. 252]. It goes on like that the whole year, 
whence the thickness of the straw that lies spread about 
all over the farmyard is considerably increased. The 
cattle continually let fall their droppings thereupon, 
besides any refuse which is cast there. When this 
collection has risen to some considerable quantity, it 
is then shovelled, sk&ttas, together into great heaps, 
which commonly happens in the spring season, and 
is left so to lie and ferment, brinna tilhopa, for 
a time, viz., for three or four weeks, not more, because 
it takes harm. By this means a farmer can obtain a 
quantity of beautiful and choice manure for his arable. 
This mode of providing himself with manure at skaffa 
sig godsel, is practised by one and all of the farmers 
here in Little Gaddesden, as well as in the parishes round 
about. I saw not only the farmyards full of trampled 
straw or " haulm," halm, of all the above named kinds 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 253 

of crops, but in many places Brackens, Ormbunkar, 
mingled with them, to increase the manure. In or 
outside the farmyards I saw everywhere large haulm 
heaps, halm hdgar, piled up, which are left to lie and 
ferment. This manure so prepared is afterwards carried 
at a convenient opportunity out on to the ploughed fields 
in carts, karror, where it is laid in small heaps close 
beside each other, spread out and ploughed down. It is 
especially carted out at a time when wet weather hinders 
them from using the horses for ploughing. When this 
farmyard manure, halmen, is thrown out, makas, 
or shovelled, skattas, in heaps, there is nearly always 
some mould, mull, cast over the haulm-manure, halmen, 
or it is covered with it, that the sun may not get to dry 
it too much, and draw the " nature," kraften, out of 
it. These dunghills always lie under the open sky, 
although a shelter, skjul, might be better. 

Atskilligt slags foder at hastar. 

Different kinds of fodder for horses. 

Mr. Williams took us out to his stable, to see in what 
way [T. I. p. 253] he uses to feed and fodder, foda 
OCh fodra, his horses. Here he had with a steel- 
mill, Stalqyarn, caused to be chopped up, l&tit 
SOnderkrossa, the kinds of peas which were called 
Maple Pea and Grey Pea*, into large pieces, mixed with 
it ' malt-dust ' or malt-fan, together with white and 
black oats, which he gave several times a day to his 
farm horses, which throve upon it incomparably well. This 
fodder was given them morning noon and night, and 

* These are still so-called, 1886. I find also in Ray's " Synops s, ' 318 :— 

(2) Pisum arvense flore roseo fructu ex cinereo nigricante, &c. Gray 
pease. . . . 

(3) Pisum arvense flore roseo fructu variegato. . . . Maple pease. 

[J. L.] 



254 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

just as it was required, but their ordinary food was the 
following chaff, hackelse : He had the haulm of barley 
and pease, wheat-awns and ears chopped up, and with 
this was put a little of the straw about 4 inches long, 
more or less, together with hay. This was all cut up so 
small, that it was little larger than coarse cut tobacco. 
After that they had blended all these together, and laid 
it dry in the crib for the horses, who ate it willingly and 
flourished well on it. 

Strata uti Kritgropar, in chalk pits. 

In the hill, backen, on which Little Gaddesden 
was built, there was a chalk pit from which they had in 
former times taken chalk. Here the strata were in this 
order : — 

Ft. Ins. 

1. The top soil, svartmyllan, or the brick- 

colored earth, consisted of decayed plants 
and the brick-colored clay and chalk, in some 
places ^ ell, in other places 1 ell 

2. Chalk of the ordinary loose kind [shrave], 6 ells 

3. A stratum of the brick-colored clay, 3 inches ... 

Total 

Malt-hus. Besides that Mr. Williams was a great 
farmer, he had also large profits from malting, at han 
maltade malt, and sold it to [T. I. p. 254] all the 
surrounding inhabitants. He showed us the malthouse, 
which was large enough. The floor was made of the stone 
called Freestone which is dug six English miles from 
hence, and which is brayed to dust, bokas sonder til 
stoft, mixed with water, and prepared as clay, ler, and 
after that the floor of the malthouse is made of it. The 
floor was somewhat sloping, so that the water could run 



2 





12 








3 


14 


3 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 255 

off from the malt. This Freestone, together with the pit 
or mine, grufvan, from which it is taken shall be 
described farther on. [Totternhoe Stone.] 

Stal-qvarnars bruk, at mala Malt oeh Arter. 

The use of steel mills to grind Malt and Pease. 
Here were shown to us two steel mills, one of which 
Mr. Williams used to grind malt in, and the other to 
crush to pieces the pease which he mixed with oats as food 
for the horses. They both had a large fly-wheel, svang- 
hjul, which made the labour lighter for those who had 
to work them. 

The $th April. 

In the morning we took one of the smaller farmers or 
L and t man, who was known for Agriculture and Rural 
Economy, with us, and started on the way to Ivinghoe, 
which lay in Buckinghamshire, four miles N.W. from 
Little Gaddesden, which lay in Hertfordshire, on the 
borders of Buckinghamshire. The object of this walk 
was to see the district around Ivinghoe because Mr. Ellis 
told us that the appearance of the country and the soil, 
jordmon, was entirely different from what there was at 
Little Gaddesden ; for at Little Gaddesden is " Chilturn 
Land," but around Ivinghoe " Vale Land." That land 
which consists of high hills and the chalk formation is 
called ' Chilturn Land.' ' Vale Land ' consists of large 
plains and flats, stora fait OCh slattar, and lies mostly 
in valleys. 

[T. I. p. 255.] Agrifolium, Holly, of a considerable 
size. In a hedge, a little away from a farm, we saw a 
tree of Agrifolium, Raj. Syn. 466, [ilex Aquifolium] which 
was one of the largest I had hitherto seen in England. We 
estimated that the height of this Agrifolium was 36 feet, 
and it would certainly have been higher if it had not been 
cut off at the top. We measured the periphery 2 feet 



256 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

above the ground, where it was 4 feet 6 inches. The 
stem was, for a length of 16 feet from the roots, quite 
straight and smooth, only that here and there on the 
bark grew small protuberances, knylor, in size and 
figure like hazelnuts. These were hard and woody, but 
seemed not to have any communication with the tree 
itself inside the bark. We had previously found on 
beeches just similar protuberances and of the same de- 
scription. The carl who accompanied us knew no other 
use of this tree than that it is used for fuel. 

Sades-stack pa stalpar. Ricks upon posh. 

In one place and another we saw ricks built in the 
same way as has been described before (p. 229 orig.), viz., 
standing on posts, stalpar. The posts were at the 
middle surrounded by polished brass, to hinder the ascent 
of mice into the rick, which here consisted of wheat, and 
was called by our guide a ' wheat frame.' 

Skatt-karra. A boy came along pushing a very 
large wheel-barrow, loaded with furze for fuel, which he 
had cut on the large dry common, fait, which lay 
close by. The body of the barrow, karran, was built 
like a sled, skrinda, only that at the back or towards 
the handles, skalmare, there was no frame, grind, but 
it there stood open. In short, there were high frames, 
grindar, where in ordinary wheel-barrows there are 
boards in front and at the sides. 

[T. I. p. 256.] Stort fait. A large Common. [Ivinghoe 
Common.] 

We had the whole way, almost as far as Ivinghoe, on 
the right hand inclosures, or tappor, of arable fields, 
meadows and pastures, fenced in by living hedges, and 
sometimes a farm ; * but on the left hand was a very large 

* The farm of Ward's Hurst. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 257 

down and common, * mycket stort fait och utmark, 
which to the view seemed somewhat to resemble our 
arid, sterile Ljung-hedar, Lingheaths, in Sweden, only 
that no ling was found on this one, and that the land did 
not here lie flat, but rose by degrees, and by degrees fell 
off again, or sloped downwards. It was nearly all over- 
grown with Genista Spinosa, furze, which here was not 
much over 4 inches high, because it is altogether cut 
down by poor folk close to the ground, and is carried home 
for fuel. The whole plain, with much more, belonged to 
the Duke of Bridgewater. [This is the same elevated 
plateau described at T. I. pp. 197-8, and p. 197, above.] 

Jordmon i dalderna, en flint-sand och des nytta. 

The soil in the dales a flint-sand, and its use. 

It was curious, that for the most part down in all the 
dales between the hills, the soil consisted mostly of pure 
flint gravel, or a coarse sand, bara flint-grus, eller en 
grof sand, which was not such as our most common 
sand in Sweden, viz., of quartz, but it consisted of bare 
flint, such as is found everywhere about here, which 
had been reduced to a coarser or finer sand. From some 
little mixture of chalk soil, krit-jord, amongst it, the 
colour of this deposit was a rust-colour. We sought 
diligently a long time to see whether we could not find 
any grains of quartz, sand-korn af Q., but in vain. 
Nor was there found here any other kind of stone, large 
or small, but flint. Those who live in this district, mix 
this sand with clay [T. I. p. 257] of which they make 
and burn bricks, and when they build a house it is mixed 
with lime. 

Kalk af Krita. Lime from Chalk. 
I enquired of the carl who accompanied us what kind of 

* Ivinghoe Common. [J. L.] 



258 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

lime they use here for their houses, and where they get 
the same ? He answered, that they dig up ordinary chalk 
out of the chalk hills, lay it together in heaps, and burn 
it in the same way as is usual in burning lime from lime- 
stone, kalk-sten, when the chalk, after it has been burnt, 
is reduced to a fine powder or meal, which is an ordinary 
lime. With this lime blended with flint-sand, they build 
all their brick or stone houses. All those who lived round 
about this place, told me as a very well known and com- 
mon thing, that the chalk is burnt by them everywhere 
to lime, by being laid in lime kilns, kalk-Ugnar, and 
after burning is slaked, of which more further on. 

Naslor til grdnk&l. Nettles as Green-meat. 
When the nettles first come up in the spring, they 
are plucked by the women, and prepared as green-meat, 
gronkal, in the same way and method as we in Sweden 
prepare Spinat. They here maintain that nettles prepared 
thus or in any other way, and eaten, are very wholesome, 
and purify the blood.* 

Dagg-maskar, en begarlig mat for Anckor. 

Earth-worms a favorite food of Ducks, 
Everywhere on the range, at Little Gaddesden, as well 
as the villages round about, the whole of the ground 
appears to be full of worm-holes. Close to all these 
holes are found small heaps of fine mould, mull, which 
the worm had heaved up when it made the hole [worm- 

* Nettle Salad. I enquired at Ivinghoe whether this is still made. 
The negative answer is inconclusive, as it is still prepared in Surrey, 1886, 
where they only call them boiled nettles. Sir W. Hooker (Flora, 5th Ed. 
1842) says : "In Scotland the young tops of nettles are boiled and eaten by 
the common people." (U dioica, p. 296.) Sir W. Scott also: "Nae doubt I 
suld understand my ain trade of horticulture, seeing I was bred in the parish 
of Dreepdaily, near Glasco', where they raise lang-kail under glass, and 
force the ewly nettles for their spri g kail" Andrew Fairservice in Rob 
Roy. [J.L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 259 

casts]. Around Woodford, in Essex, the ground is in the 
same way full of worms and their holes. I saw to-day 
that a troop of ducks waddled about and, as it were, 
sought for something. I asked the carl who accompanied 
us if he knew what they were seeking for? He answered 
that in the evenings and very early in the morning the 
worms creep out of their holes on to the ground, for 
which reason the ducks go very early in the morning 
afield to seek for them, and eat them very greedily, 
ganska snalt. When it advances a little farther into 
the day, so that the sun mounts higher up in the heavens, 
the worms creep down into their holes under the earth, 
when the ducks also, as they can no longer reach them, 
return back from the plain, and wander home to the 
farms. We got afterwards several times to see that the 
carl spoke truth. 

At Woodford Mr. Warner had four Sea Gulls, Fisk- 
masar, who went in his garden, and diligently followed 
the gardeners, when they were digging in the garden. 
These gulls were very clever at swallowing the worms 
which were cast up in turning over the earth. 

Jordens tjocklek pa Kritan i dalderna. 

The thickness of the soil over the chalk in the dales. 

The carl who accompanied us told us that when a 
well, grop, is dug in the dales between the chalk hills, 
one often may have to dig 14 or 20, and more feet deep 
before reaching the place where the chalk is met with, 
tager emot : but on the other hand, it is often not 
necessary to dig on the chalk hills or ridges, krit- 
bargen eller hogderna, more than 1 or 2 feet, before 
the chalk rock itself occurs, tager vid. The soil was 
here everywhere in the dales, for a great part, the before- 
described [p. 256 orig.] flint-sand which nearly always 
had a reddish or rust colour. 

s 2 



26o KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Genista Spinosa [Ulex Europaeus]. Furze as fuel. 

We saw in many places in the before-mentioned great 
arid common, bete smar ken, considerable heaps of 
Genista Spinosa, furze, which had been here cut and after- 
wards laid together to be thence [T. I. p. 259] carried home 
for fuel. This fuel was a collection of furze, brackens, 
Ormbunkar, and dry loads of grass, amongst which, 
however, Genista Spinosa, furze, formed the greater part. 

Buxbom planterad pa torra backar. 

Box bushes planted on dry hills. 

On one of the high chalk hills that exist here the 
Duke of Bridgewater had caused to be planted, partly in 
rows as hedges, partly in the form of small woods, a 
quantity of box- tree, Buxus arbor escenSyCl&spar] Bfaauhin] 
The height of these trees was 4, 5, or 6 feet. They 
throve here very well. The place on which they grew 
was one of the highest-lying and driest of all that can be 
imagined, where grass and other plants from the dryness, 
and perhaps from the sterility of the soil, had entirely 
perished and died out, for these lay just facing the 
greatest heat of the sun starkaste Solbaddet, a little 
below the highest ridge on the south side of a high hill.* 
In appearance, dryness and sterility, the hill sufficiently 
resembled Polaks-backarna near Upsala ; but the soil 
was here quite another kind, viz., the yellow chalk soil, 
besides that this hill was getting on for two or three 
times higher than the Polaks-backe. The Duke of 
Bridgewater sold much of this boxwood in London to 
turners. 



* Buxbom. These bushes still exist, 1886 ; the highest about 15 feet. 
The height of the ground is 760 feet on the east side of Steps hill, just below 
the highest ridge, which here runs N. and S. where I saw them. Sep. 22nd. 
[J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 26 1 

Akrarnas belagenhet, Jordmon, &c, omkring, 

Ivinghoe. 
The situation of the arable fields, soil, &c, around Ivinghoe. 

On. the south side of the hills, about an English mile 
before one arrives at Ivinghoe, there lie some frightfully 
high chalk hills, which on almost all sides are steep, 
branta, but most of all on that which faces the N.W. 
[Steps Hill.] 

At the foot of these chalk hills, to the N.W., N., and 
N.E. [Ward's Coombe] sides lie very large arable fields, 
which for the most part are quite smooth, jamna, 
and to the view sufficiently resemble the arable plain of 
Upland. The arable [T. I. p. 260] hereabouts, on which 
wheat was sown were laid out partly in broadlands, or 
mostly flat-ploughed plots, partly in two-bout-lands, or in 
small riggs, ryggar, with water furrows between : still 
broadland was most used. The broadlands were also, for 
the most part, quite flat, or just the least thing higher in 
the middle, sa godt som foga ting hogre midt pa. 
Here appear no ditches, no acre-reins, not even fences, 
gardesgard, or hedges around the arable fields, 
&krarna. They lay in Common-Field, or in teg-skiften, 
though there was no rein between the ' lands,'* 
tegarna, but they were separated only by a narrow 
water-furrow, vattu-f&r. The colour and the soil, 
Pargen OCh Jordmon, here were now quite another 
sort, and different from what we had seen before, for the 
colour of the arable was here mostly white, or very light 
grey, which caused anyone who saw these ploughed fields 
from a distance before he had taken a good view of them 
to think they had been spread over with chalk. The soil 
here also was quite another sort, for it consisted of a 

* ' Lands.' So-called, 1886. Ivinghoe, Ward's Hurst, &c. [J. L.] 



262 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

harder kind of chalk which is here called Hurlock* and 
has ordinarily the quality that it will with difficulty fall 
to pieces for use on the fields. Sometimes, when there 
is a great drought, it is said to fissure, ramna, very 
much. Otherwise they call this soil loam, or loamy ground, 
and it is just, as I may say, a medium between chalk 
and a stiff clay. It is a species of chalk, kritaktigart, 
in a certain way ; but the chalk is so hard that it cannot 
easily be loosened or turned to any use on the fields. I 
speak of the soil which is dug up in the chalk-banks, or 
slopes, Kritbackarna, for that which is found in the 
ploughed fields was, through the folks industry and 
manuring, more loose, yet it seems almost to have the 
qualities of a potclay, spiklera, namely, to hold moisture. 
On the north side of the great hills [that is the range of 
Ivinghoe Beacon, Steps Hill, and Clipper Down] the 
ploughed fields were still, at midday, quite [T. I. p. 261] 
wet, which came from the sharp frost there was the night 
before, whose remaining moisture the sun had not yet 
been able to dry up. But when we went home in the 
evening the mould on the ploughed fields was quite dry. 
On the wet roads where the soil was much trodden it 
everywhere looked like a lime-mortar which is used for 
walling. The wheels of the carts with which they drove 
on the roads were so coloured by it as if they had driven 
them into a heap of mortar. It was a special feature 
that there were no flints on the ploughed fields, unless it 
were some single bit, of which it is quite uncertain how 
it had come there ; while, on the other hand, the fields 
around Little Gaddesden and in all Chiltum Land were 
quite full of them ; but, instead of these, there here lie 
pieces of this hard chalk. In the same way, in all the 

* Burlock, the name for the Lower Chalk, near Tring and Dunstable, 
1886. [J.L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 263 

banks, backarna, where they had taken chalk the whole 
quarry, brott, seems to consist of such hard chalk 
lumps, kritstycken, but not a single flint-bit among 
them, except at one single place. Wheat is said to grow 
very well in this earth, barley tolerably, black oats some- 
what better. In wetter places beans thrive very well, 
but pease are said not to flourish. 

F&r i fMlor p& nyss sadda Korn-akra. 

Sheep in folds on newly -sown Barley -fields. 

They were now busily engaged here in sowing Barley, 
Korn, which was done in broadland, and the seed was 
harrowed down directly after the sowing. The plough 
which was here everywhere used was only and exclusively 
the so-called Foot-plough.* Many may think, because 
the two-wheel single Hertfordshire plough f has such great 
advantages over other ploughs, that they also would use 
it, because it is generally and almost exclusively used 
in Hertfordshire, which lies [T. I. p. 262] only 3 or 4 
miles from here. But they said that their foot-plough is 
better, because the before-named Hertfordshire plough 
with its wheel could not advance in this soil, which at 
certain times of year is very soft and miry, blot och 
sank, but the wheel would sink deep into it, and become 
stuck fast, full-klibbade. On these newly-sown barley- 
fields stood several folds in which they keep the sheep at 
night, which by their droppings manure the field con- 



* Foot-plough. A few years ago these had almost disappeared, but 
within the last 7 or 8 years they have come into use again on the Gaull, as at 
Slapton, where they are used in wet weather. They are now made by the 
blacksmith at Eaton Bray, 1886. The iron plough is used in dry weather, 
1886. Q. L.] 

f The Hertfordshire plough has apparently disappeared. I have not 
succeeded in seeing one, though I have been sent on more than one wild 
goose chase to remote farms to see one, 1886. [J. L.] 



364 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

siderably where the barley is sown. When the sheep 
have stood one night on a place, the fold is changed next 
morning to the space immediately adjoining, and thus it 
is continued over the whole barley-field for a whole fort- 
night after it has been sown, until it is an inch or more 
high. They have always a bundle of good hay, which 
is strown out in the rack,* i hacken, for the sheep, when 
they come there in the evening. The folds, fallorna, 
consisted here as everywhere of such hurdles, grindar ; 
which are made exactly the same shape as our common 
aker-grindar in Sweden, although all the timber ,verket, 
in those which were used for folds, was much smaller, 
klenare, so that they might be so much lighter to change 
and carry from one place to another. The breadth or 
length, as I will call it, of these hurdles was for the most 
part 8 feetf, the height 3 feet 6 inches. They had as many 
such hurdles in readiness, as their number of sheep was. 
When they are set up into a fold, one hurdle is fastened to 
another in this way that a stake, stor, is knocked down 
with a mallet, klubba, between the side posts, sid-traden, 
of two hurdles, to which pole, pale, one end of the 
hurdle is bound fast, and the fold thus consists of a lot 
of hurdles set in a four-sided figure, and a pole driven 
down between each hurdle, to which they are bound 
fast, so that they may stand firm. In these folds the 
sheep stand at [T. I. p. 263] nights under the open sky, 
and seem not to have it particularly warm on the wide 
plain, when a strong north wind blows ; because the 
fields here are very large and lie open to that wind. But 
as the sheep are clipped here only once a year, and that 
in the middle of the summer, they can well make shift, 
barga sig. 

* I saw one of these, Sep. 21, 1886. [J. L.] 

t Some I measured, Ivinghoe, Sep. 21, 1886, were 7 feet 8 inches long. 

[J- L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 265 

Klades-klutar til godsel pa akern. 

Rags as manure on arable fields. 
On the fields which were sown with wheat, we saw 
here and there rags, klutar, or small laps, lappar, 
of old clothes, which were ploughed down in the field. 
Those who dwell here about Ivinghoe, and are 34 miles 
from London, do not fail to take the trouble to buy from 
tailors and others in London, all sorts of old rags which 
they carry from thence home, cut them into small bits, 
strow them over the field which they wish to sow with 
wheat, plough them down, and sow wheat therein. They 
said they scarcely knew of anything, which so manures 
the fields, and forwards the growth of crops in such a 
soil as they have there; for these laps hold back the 
moisture a long time and are a good manure, with several 
advantages. 

Akrar utan hackar eller stangsel. 

Arable fields without hedges or fences. 

All these large flat fields which were situated down 
in the valleys around Ivinghoe, lay quite open, without 
any fence or barrier, hagnad eller stangsel, either of 
hedges or deadwood fences of any kind, hackar eller 
gardsel. I asked why they had not planted hedges 
around the field as a barrier, til stangsel, as in all the 
other places in the neighbourhood ? Some answered 
that hedges will not grow quickly in this soil. Others 
said that the fields all lie here in teg-skifte, exchange- 
able slips, intermixed, om hvart annat, so that it is 
thus not commonly done ; for if one will go forward 
another wishes to go back, and if one wishes to plant, 
the other [T. I. p. 264] does not, and thus it is left 
undone. Hence it comes that no one had liberty to do 
it without a special Act of Parliament. I was tolerably 
satisfied with the latter reason, but the former I had 



266 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

difficulty in believing ; for I saw old hedges in one place 
and another by the'fields where the trees seemed to flourish 
as well as up in Chiltum Land about Little Gaddesden, 
&c, for the hawthorn, sloe, blackberry bushes, and 
other leaf trees formed here as beautiful and thick 
hedges as in Hertfordshire. I enquired further, how the 
cattle can then be restrained from springing into the 
arable fields and there doing harm ? To this they 
answered that each farmer keeps a cow-herd, fa-herde, 
who accompanies the cattle and sheep, and drives them 
on to the places which it is allowed for them to bait 
upon, and keeps them from running into the ploughed 
fields or meadows to do har m there. 

Huru atskillig slags halm, ormbunkar, etc, 
beredes til godsel. 

How different kinds of straw, Brackens, &c, are prepared 
as manure. 

At a place just outside Ivinghoe there lay by the 
roadside a large dunghill of dung, straw, &c, shovelled 
together to ferment. Its length was 48 feet, breadth 
24, and height about 1 fathom. It consisted of the 
fodder which they had given to the cattle and spread 
out under them in the farm-yard, i fa-garden, namely, 
wheat, barley, beans, pease, and oat-straw, together with 
a multitude of brackens. They dispose of it, as has been 
mentioned above (p. 251, orig. p. 251 above.) 

Huru de gora sig nytta af orenligheten p& vagar 
vid byar. 

How they use the dirt on the roads near the villages. 

Everywhere I have travelled in this country I have 
remarked that straw and other litter has been strown on 
the parts of the roads in the villages which were wet and 
dirty. The object of this was [T. I. p. 265] partly to get 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 267 

the roads through the villages into a fitter and dryer state 
to go upon, partly and principally to procure by that 
means an increase of manure for the fields, for this straw 
or litter is trampled down by folk, horses, and other 
animals, mixed with the droppings of the animals, and 
the mud or soil the roads consist of, &c. 

When it has lain thus for some time it is shovelled 
together into larger or smaller heaps by the wayside, 
which mostly have the shape of a cube, or oblong. Their 
height is seldom under 3 feet, but indeed more, up to a 
fathom. Commonly a little mould is cast on the top that 
the sun may not dry it too much. Here it gets to lie 
thus the whole summer in the heaps to rot and ferment, 
brinna tilhopa, after which it is carried out on to the 
fields as a beautiful manure. 

Sades-stackar p& stalpar. Rich on posts. 

At Ivinghoe we saw a great collection of ricks at their 
farms, which all stood on posts, just 3 feet from the 
ground. The posts were mostly of Freestone * hewn 
square. On the top of each stone-pillar, sten-st&lpen, 
was laid a l flat stone,' or ' resting stone,' f halla, of the 
same kind of stone, which reached far beyond the pillar 
on all sides, to prevent mice from slipping up into the 
stack. Some had the pillars either in the middle or to- 
wards the upper ends, clad with a thin very smooth brass 
or tin plate, m&ssings eller black-skifva, which 
likewise hindered the mice from climbing up into the 
stack, because they could not possibly get fast hold of the 
brass or tin. Yet it was equally necessary that no sticks, 
timber, or other things should come to rest against the 
stack, of which they could easily avail themselves to get 

* Totternhoe Stone. 

t Called Flatstone or ' Resting Stone,' 1886. Q. L.] 



268 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

up. These stacks were sometimes four-sided [T. I. p. 
266], sometimes round, and their shapes can best be seen 
from the accompanying figures ; for they did not have 
them in many varieties. On the top, these, as well as 
all ricks in these places, were very well thatched with 
straw, ganska val tackte med halm, which was done 
in the same way as has been previously treated in detail in 
respect of hay-stacks [p. 211 orig.~\ In such stacks were 
built up not only wheat, barley, and oats, (for rye is not 
sown in this place), but also pease and beans. Besides, 
the feet or pillars, pelare, which stood round about the 
sides, there was always a foot or pillar set under the 
middle of the stack for the sake of greater strength. The 
number of the pillars was commonly nine — viz., one under 
the middle and eight round about. These ricks always 
stood at home at the farms, and never out on the fields. 
The crop, saden, can be kept for a long time good and 
uninjured in such a stack, without turning musty, or 
taking any harm ; for manifold experience has shown that 
all kinds of seeds are kept [T. I. p. 267] best and longest 
in their own seedhouse, or husk. Down on the bottom, 
botten, ' Rick-staddle,' or * Rick-frame,' * is spread out 
preferably, furze, hawthorn, and sloe, and sometimes 
brackens. These thorny trees are especially used for 
the bottom of the rick, so that if any chance has brought 
mice into the stack, their thorns should deprive them of 
the pleasure of staying there long, and also hinder the 
ascent of others. Down at the ground the stacks were 
always narrower, and broadest in the middle, where their 
thatch ended, so that the sides might not take harm from 
■ rain which drips down from the thatchfoot on to the 
stack. The pease and bean stalks were thatched with 
straw in the same way as the corn-ricks. 

* So called, 1886. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 269 

Valt. The Roller. 
On a pasture at Ivinghoe lay a large roller, which was 
made in this way, that above the roller was as it were a 
roof, on which stones could be laid when one wished to 
make the roller heavier, and taken off again when one 
wished to roll anything which did not require such a great 
weight. The diameter of the roller or the stock was 18 
inches. 

Bladen pa Hedera, &c. Ivy leaves as food for Sheep. 

The leaves of Hedera Arborea, C.B. are said to be 
gathered here by good economists, hushallare, who 
give them green to their sheep, which eat them very 
greedily. The carl who accompanied us related as a fact, 
that small pills, arter, are made from this tree, which 
pills are laid in sores to keep them open. 

Beskrifning p& Ivinghoe. Description of Ivinghoe. 

Ivinghoe is a parish or large village, whose inhabitants, 
for the most part, live by agriculture. Yet there were 
here also a few shopkeepers, as is usual in all parishes or 
large villages in England. The houses [T. I. p. 268] or 
farms are not built all in a row, as in Little Gaddesden, 
but more in a round form, as in a town. In the middle 
of the parish there stands a beautiful stone church,* 
with a tower to it, med torn pa, yet not built in the 
manner usual in England, viz., cut off at the top, but 
with a spire, spir-torn, in which was set a timepiece 
without a hand.f 

* Principally flint with irregular lumps of Freestone (Totternoe Stone). 

[J- L.] 

f There are now two clocks, both with two hands. Such a one-handed 
clock may still [1886] be seen on one of the west towers of Westminster 
Abbey. [J. L.] 



270 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

All houses in this parish, besides some outhouses, 
which were of oak-boards, were built of stone or brick, 
tegel, yet the brickwork was entirely between cross- 
work or cross-timbers, korsverke, which went both ad 
angulos rectos et acutos.* The roofs nearly all of straw, 
halm, well-thatched, and very steep. Everywhere by 
the streets and round about the houses there were trees 
planted, so that the place lay almost in a garden.. The 
village lies mostly in a hollow. On the east side are high 
chalk hills, on which arable fields go right up to the 
highest point.f 

Sag-sp&n af Bok til bransle. 

Saw-dust from Beech for fuel. 

In some places we saw that they had in their sheds, 
lider, among other fuel, also heaps of beech-dust, 
B6k-span. Their use, when they are dry, was said 
only to be this — that by them the fire can be kept alive 
on the hearth, but that they are no good to cook food 
with. Some sticks were always laid at the bottom on 
the hearth, nederst i Spisen, upon which these were 
afterwards cast. 

Plinta til galf och grundval pa hus. 

Flints for floors and foundations of houses. 

In some places the floor of the entrance, Forstugu- 
galfven, consisted only of flints, which were there laid 
in clay, ler, so the flat side came to be turned up. In 
many places, also, the foundations of the houses, often 
for a height of 4 feet above the ground, were built only 
of flints. 

* Many of these old houses are still to be seen at Ivinghoe. At Eaton 
Bray, called ' brick and stud' work, 1886. [J. L.] 

f On a conical eminence seen from Ivinghoe village on the northern 
end of Pitstone Hill, over 6oo feet. It is one mile S.E. of Ivinghoe. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 27 1 

Allehanda slags halm til godsel. 

All kinds of straw for manure. 

In each and every farmyard there was wheat, barley, 
oats, beans [T. I. p. 269], pease, and other straw in 
abundance strown under cows, by that means to increase 
the manure in the manner which has been described 
above [p. 251 orig. 251 above]. 

Akrarnas belagenhet, etc. 

The situation of the ploughed fields, &c. 

North of Ivinghoe, those fields which lay nearest 
the village were situated on the north side of a chalk 
hill,* so that they slope considerably. On them appeared 
neither reins nor ditches, but only poor broken hedges 
around them. All were laid out in broadlands. The 
breadth of each broadland was com monly 20 feet. The 
soil was white and of the same character as has been 
described [p. 259 orig.'], viz., of a very hard chalk with- 
out any mixture of flint among it. It is said to have 
the property that in severe drought it cracks all 
to pieces in deep and wide fissures, vid stark 
torka spricker alt sonder i djupa och breda 
ramnor, often 2 or 3 inches broad. But the lower 
parts of the fields north of Ivinghoe, those, namely, 
which lay at the bottom lowest down on the flat plain 
in the valley were laid out in an entirely different 
manner, namely, in ridge half-acre land, and ridge acre 
land, that is, the whole field, akern,f lay in great ridges j 
ryggar eller uphoghingar, highest in the middle, 
halst midt pa, and sloping on both sides, just in the 

* The escarpment of the Lower Chalk or Hurlock. [J.L.J 

f There is one particular field from which Kalm evidently took his 

description — the third from Ivinghoe, through which the footpath to Ivinghoe 

Aston passes, before it crosses the beck. [J. L.J 



272 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

same way as the fields are laid out in Westmanland and 
Nerike in Sweden. Each 'rigg' was here so large that 
it contained a whole or a half tunnelands land, 
'■ Townland's land.' The breadth of each ridge or rygg 
was 20, 24, 28, 32, or more feet.* The perpendicular 
height of these ridges in the middle above the plane of 
the bottom of the water-furrows, midt pa, mot det de 
voro i botten af vattu-faren, was 18 inches, 2 feet, 
or 2 feet 6 inches ; for some ridges were higher than the 
others. They were obliged to lay out their fields in this 
way, because they lie so low and are very favourably 
placed for wet, och aro mycket benagne for vata, 
and because there are not here used any [T. I. p. 270] 
other ditches than water-furrows, vattu-farar, between 
these broad ridges. Thence also it comes that the land 
which stands nearest the water-furrow has been entirely 
drowned and ruined by the water. These low places were 
last year sown with beans.f All the ryggs and water- 
furrows were drawn from the highest part of the fields 
down to the hollows so that the water might run off so 
much faster. Down at the bottom of the valley, there 
flowed a little beck, scarcely larger than an ordinary ditch. J- 
Flints seldom appeared on these fields, much less any 
other kind of stone. The fields this summer lay fallow, 

* The breadth of each ridge. On Sept. 21, 1886, I measured five of these. 
They are very high, and there is a furrow along the summit of each — not 
for water, but for the reason that the plough started at the bottom on both 
sides and finished at the top of each ridge last time it was ploughed— which 
must have been very many years ago. The field is now old pasture. The 
following are the breadths in feet : — 

Furrow to Ridge, and Ridge to Furrow : 25, 24, 23, 19, 25, 21, 23, 25, 

17, 26. 
Furrow to Furrow : 49, 42, 46, 48, 43. 
This kind of ploughing is still called " Ridges." [J. L.] 
t Grassland, 1886. [J. L.] 
\ That running from Ivinghoe N.E. to Ivinghoe Aston. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 273 

and will in autumn be sown with wheat, but still they 
had not begun to plough them up, but they were -in the 
same state as when the beans were cut. 

Akrar och annan jordmon, etc. 

Arable fields, and another soil, etc. 

We afterwards crossed over the afore-named beck on 
the other side of which arable fields occurred which 
were of an entirely different colour from those we have 
just described, although they were only separated from 
the others by a little beck ; for the soil here was white 
no more, but of a dark grey colour*, af en morkaktig 
farg, and had flint stones enough. It seems also not to 
be so stiff as the white earth, but more loose, and 
resembled mylla mould. On account of their low 
situation, it was similarly laid out in broad ridge lands 
or ryggs, still the ryggs here were not quite so high 
as the former ones, or those on the other side of the 
beck, which were exactly like the ploughed fields of 
Westmanland; but these were more like our fields in 
Nerike, where the ridges are not so high. It was wonder- 
ful that a little beck of 2 or 3 feet wide should make so 
great a difference, especially as the same beck was not 
over 2 feet deeper than [T. I. p. 271] the water furrows 
themselves in the fields on both sides. The reason 
might be this. The beck runs from west to east. On 
the south side lie high chalk hills of the hard kind of 
chalk, which slope gradually towards the beck. On the 
north side of the same beck there lie for 2 or 3 miles 
small hills of another, or a little darker earth, f which 
also slope towards the beck, but their slope is so slight, 

* The Gault. [J. L.] + The Gault. []. L.] 



274 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

that it scarcely departs from a horizontal plane, streket. 
The white earth, jorden, which occurs in the valleys 
on the south side of the beck, has doubtless been washed 
down from the neighbouring chalk hills, because the soil, 
jordmon, is identical; but that it has not gone on to 
the other side of the beck, may probably have been 
caused in this way, that the water in the beck, which 
runs tolerably swiftly, always carries the same away with 
it* 

I also imagine that in the first instance the earth on 
the south side of the brook has been down in the valleys 
of the same black, svarta, colour as it is immediately 
on the other and north side ; but has afterwards been 
covered, ofver holgd, by the white earth which has 
been washed down from the chalk hill : for the black soil 
on the north side of the beck seems to have to thank the 
beck for it, that it has got to retain its colour. Here on 
the north side of the beck, the land was again divided 
into small inclosures or tappor, of arable fields, meadows 
or pastures, surrounded with living hedges, though here 
also we were met by large arable or Common Fieldsf 
which there lay in teg-skifte, exchangeable slips, or 
' lands,' and were ridged like the ploughed fields in 
Nerihe. When we came two miles north of Ivinghoe, the 
fields acquired a still blacker colour, so that the soil there 
was almost like a svart-mylla, 'black-earth.' They 
were all laid out in 20-feet broad ridges, tolerably high, 
exactly like the arable in Westmanland, only that a great 
part of these ridge- [T. I. p. 272] lands were so, that along 



* The true reason is that the base of the chalk is reached near the brook, 
which here flows from S.W. to N.E., and that the Gault passes under the 
chalk, dipping S.E. [J. L.] 

f Alas, by a mistaken political economy, these and other open fields 
have been enclosed. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 275 

the middle of the highest ridge was drawn a little water- 
furrow 6 or 9 inches deep. The water-furrows between 
the ridges were now nearly full of water. A great part 
of these ploughed fields had been last year sown with 
beans, and were now left this summer fallow. Most part 
of the fields lay low, and in watery places. Some of 
them were now sown with beans, and that in broad cast, 
and afterwards ploughed down. This land where the beans 
had just been sown had the summer before been sown 
with wheat. That this land was low-lying and wet could 
also be seen from several plants otjuncus Aquatilis, rushes , 
which grew on the very ploughed fields themselves. 

Dikes-jord til godsel p& ang. 

Ditch-earth for manure on the meadows. 

There was at a place close to the road a ditch, 4 *' 
through which a great deal of water had its escape, 
lopp, which came from the arable fields just described, 
which there consisted of a black earth, svart jord, 
This ditch, which had been filled up again by the black 
earth which the water had carried with it from the arable 
fields, had just been cleaned out. All the mould, 
mullen, which had been taken out of it was arranged 
in a high long bank on the ground alongside of the 
ditch, where it would now be left to lie for a time in the 
open air, to be, as it were, tempered. After that it would 
be carried home to the farm, cast on the dunghill, where 
it would lie for a time, to draw to itself more juice from 
the dung, and, after that, would be carried out on to the 
arable or meadows, and spread out over the grass-sward, 
where it will incredibly increase the grass growth, 
especially if rain conveniently happens to fall directly 
after it has been outspread. 

* Vidi, Sep. 21, 1886, Ivinghoe Aston. [J. L.] 



276 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 273.] 
Akrarnas belagenhet, etc., vid Carrington. 

Situation of the ploughed fields, etc., near Carrington. 

At Carrington* which lay a couple of miles north of 
Ivinghoe, the arable fields consisted of an earth which 
was almost as black as gunpowder, very fine and loose, 
and looked nearly like the black earth, den svarta 
jorden, which we dig out of our karr, bogs, in Sweden. 
There seldom appeared any flint-stone in it. The whole 
field was laid out in broad ridge-lands or ryggar, in the 
same way as in Nerike. A part of them was now sown 
with wheat, which now stood green and very beautiful. 
Along the middle of the highest ridge there went a little 
water-furrow,f 6 inches deep, or sometimes a little more. 
The breadth of each and every ridge-land, or rygg, was 
nearly always 20 feet. The wheat had always been sown 
in the ordinary manner, and ploughed down. 

Halm til bransle. Straw as fuel. 

We saw on a ploughed field large heaps of wheat- 
straw, hvete-halm, and also in one place and another 
by the farms this straw arranged in heaps, partly under 
shelter, skul, partly not. They told us that they would 
use the aforenamed straw in this woodless district as fuel 
for boiling water, washing dishes, &c. 

Korn saddes. Barley was being sown. 
Everywhere we wandered about to-day they were 
engaged in sowing barley, both on flat-ploughed plots 
and on broad ridges. When the barley is sown they 

* I have failed to identify this place, unless it be Cheddington. [J. L.] 
f " Water-furrow." I am told these are not water-furrows, but simply 
the result of the last ploughing having been started at the bottom on each 
side of the ridge and turning downwards, so that the last bout on each side 
leaves a furrow at the top. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 277 

harrow it under. There were commonly three or four 
harrows bound together abreast in the manner before 
described [p. 193 orig.~], and a horse for every harrow, so 
that they all drew abreast. One single little boy drove 
all three horses and harrows, so that for three or more 
harrows bound together, and the same number of horses, 
there was only required a little boy. 

[T. I. p. 274.] Stora &ker-stycken sadda med 

Bonor. Large ploughed plots sown with beans. 

The arable fields which lay immediately north of 
Ivinghoe, which were very low-lying and wet, were almost 
entirely sown with such kinds of beans as they here call 
horse-beans.* It is with them that horses and swine are 
fed the greater part of the year, but to sheep and cows 
they are not commonly given. 

Tjenlig mark til Far-bete. 

Land suitable for sheep -pasture. 
One and all whom I asked about it truly told me 
that the fields and arable, falten och akrarna, here 
about Ivinghoe are not good for sheep-pasture, because 
they are wet and low-lying, for when rainy summers 
happen the sheep here commonly get the rot, R6t- 
sjukan, and dropsy, and often die off in large numbers. 
On the contrary, they consider all Chilturn land, that is 
the districts lying on the hills, or the chalk-formation, as 
the most suitable of all and most wholesome for sheep, 
and there they thrive the best of all, all of which a long 
experience has shown to be true. 

Kalk af ordinair flinta. Lime from ordinary flint. 

Several people in Ivinghoe related that those who 
dwell 20 miles from thencef burn their lime from the 

* They are still called so, 1886. [J. L.] 

f The folk say that this was probably near Leighton Buzzard. [J. L.] 



278 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

ordinary flint, which in Hertfordshire occurs everywhere 
on the fields. I made the suggestion that it might 
be some kind of limestone that resembled flint. 
They answered ' No,' but that it was the same 
ordinary flint as occurs here on the fields, and that 
which is used to strike fire with, but the manner in 
which it is burned to lime they were unable to describe. 
The smith at Little Gaddesden and another old man also 
confirmed the same — viz., that in some places they burn 
lime from flint, and added that [T. I. p. 275] this lime is 
very good and strong, and better than other lime ; also 
that it is a special way how they burn flints to lime, which 
these men, however, had not themselves understood. Mr. 
Ellis also told me that he heard told as a fact that lime 
is in some places burnt from flint, but that he himself 
had never seen it done. The truth, however, seems to 
result in this, that it is some particular kind of limestone 
which in colour, shape and hardness tolerably resembles 
flint, and it is of this the lime is burnt, but strangers 
mistake it for flint ; for it is somewhat difficult to believe 
that * ordinair Flinta skal sa latt g& til kalk,' 
ordinary flint will so easily change to lime ! 

Petrifications in Chalk. 

At Ivinghoe, also, several related that everywhere 
here lime is burnt from ordinary chalk, but as I made the 
suggestion that it might be some kind of limestone which 
resembled chalk, the landlord, Husbonden, went into 
the house, i garden, and produced, tog fram, a piece 
of ordinary chalk and showed that it was of this that 
lime is here burnt. When we began to examine the piece 
of chalk we found several mussel-shells imbedded in it. 
We broke the piece of chalk asunder, when shells like 
mussel-shells, likaledes mussel-skalen, were found 
inside it, which were all of the kind which are called 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 279 

Pectinites. They were all very small. This was an 
unfailing sign that the chalk-formation, Krit-bargen, 
had in former times been sea, as well as that the chalk is 
a child of later times, unless these so-called mussel- 
shells are lusus nature?. 

Nyttan af den Mrda kritjorden vid Ivinghoe. 
Use of the hard chalk at Ivinghoe. 

The white earth, jorden, which was dug up in wet 
places at or near Ivinghoe below the chalk of the hard 
kind or Hurlok, looked just like [T. I. p. 276] a lime 
mortar. 

The carl who accompanied us, told us that they 
here use to build walls with it because it is very binding. 
The pieces which had become very hard, and as it were 
half petrified, were carried out on to the roads, to repair 
them with. Otherwise, ordinary flint was also very much 
used for carrying on to the roads to fill up the deep ruts, 
sp&ren, with, which the wheels of the large and heavy 
carts and wagons which are used in England had made, 
often getting on for 2 feet deep in the ground. 

Hackar af bok. Hedges of beech.* 

In one place and another between Ivinghoe and Little 
Gaddesden, the hedges around the inclosures consist 
principally of small beeches, which had been industriously 
planted there. And as the beech in this district retains 
its old leaves the whole winter right up to the spring 
when the new begin to shoot forth, such a beech-hedge is 
of especial use and advantage, as it is a very good shelter 
for sheep in the winter time in bad weather and cold 
blasts, while on the other hand the other hedges stand 
leafless. 

* As on north side of Edgeborough churchyard, 1886. [J. L.] 



28o KALM's ENGLAND. 

Andring pa j ordmon. Change of soil. 

As soon as we had gone i£ miles south* of Ivinghoe 
the soil acquired quite another colour and appearance. 
The white disappeared, tog af, and the yellowish-red of 
which all the fields round about Little Gaddesden consist, 
again appeared. The fields were full of flints, the hills 
clad with an abundance of leaf-trees, and luxuriant hedges 
around all the fields. What the reason was of such a 
change we could not discover, for the fades and appear- 
ance of the chalk hills near Ivinghoe, and here where 
this change of soil began, was the same as around [T. I. 
p. 277] Little Gaddesden, only that the dales between were 
here many times larger and planer. 

May not the dales in former times have stood under 
water, while the hills on the other hand, which were 
above it, were cultivated and inhabited, and the soil, 
svartmyllan eller myllan, resulting from decayed 
plants and animals have had many times many centuries 
to increase, and by mixing with the chalk, to have 
acquired the yellowish-red colour ? But then it seems 
that rain and water-floods wash down the mould or soil, 
from the hills down into the dales ? May not the white 
earth around Ivinghoe, perhaps after some centuries, 
acquire the same reddish-yellow colour as the soil around 
Little Gaddesden and thereabouts. May net the differ- 
ence in the ripeness or hardness of the chalk be due to 
that difference of the time and the ages since the chalk for- 
mation has come to stand above water or under the same ? 

Flackar af sarskild j ordmon. 

Patches of different soils. 
In some parts of the commons, utmarken, which 

* 1 J miles S. of Ivinghoe. Kalm here seems to have ascended Albany 
Nower. The only " dales " are Albury Dale and the far larger and planer 
pass of the Bulbourne. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 28 1 

consisted of the reddish-yellow earth, there occurred/>te, 
platter, of a totally different colour, viz : almost as 
black as pitch. Such a spot might be about 6 feet 
diameter. The carl who accompanied us, told us that 
they call these spots land springs, that they are some- 
times very wet and boggy, sura ; if they dig quite deep 
down in such a place, no other colour is met with than 
this black, which is, as it were, a pipe or vein of quite 
differently coloured earth among the other. May not a 
long continued pollution, syrande, of the water have 
produced this colour ? May it not be that there is 
under the chalk formation a black earth, and that a 
water-vein or pipe ascends from it up to the day,* or 
may some mineral cause this ? 

[T. I. p. 278.] Skillnad p& hvete-broddens 
gronska och langd. 

Difference in the greenness and length of wheat stalks. 

It is well known that here in England they do not 
sow all their wheat at one time, but some earlier, some 
later. Some in September, other in October, November, 
December, January, February, &c. Therefore the sprouts 
must also be different from one another. We saw to-day 
some of all sorts. Some was quite green, long, thick, 
and very beautiful, others less and less, according to 
the time it had been sown, so that some was only just 
coming up. 

Skada af Teg-skifte. Evils of the common fields. 

To-day we had manifold proofs of this, what harm 
and hindrance it is for a farmer to have all his property 
in teg-skifte, common fields, with his neighbours, and on 
the other hand what an advantage to have an isolated 

* No. Q. L.] 



282 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

farm and possessions all to himself, when he gets to 
manage and cultivate them according to his own dis- 
cretion. Around Little Gaddesden and on all Chiltum-land 
every farmer more or less had his own severalties which 
he afterwards divided into small inclosures by hedges. 
There was one inclosure sown with wheat, another with 
barley, turnips, pease, oats, sainfoin, clover, trifolium, 
tares, potatoes, or whatever he wished. 

While the fields were lying fallow, he could sow it with 
turnips, feed sheep on it, and afterwards plough down the 
remaining bitten turnips, and have thereby a much greater 
advantage than if he had left it fallow. In short, he 
could in a thousand ways improve his property and earn 
money. On the other hand, here about Ivinghoe, where 
the common fields are everywhere in use, no hedges are 
seen. Nor are there here any pease or kinds of grass 
sown as fodder for sheep, cows, horses and [T. I. p. 279] 
swine. When wheat, barley, some oats, beans, and 
turnips at anyone's farm are excepted, they had nothing 
more. 

Nor had they any turnip land to feed sheep upon. 
Therefore they were deprived of the advantage of getting 
to sell any fat sheep or other cattle, &c. The reason 
they gave for all this was that their arable was common 
field, allmaninge, which lay in teg-skifte, and thus 
came to lie every other year fallow, when one commoner 
always had to accommodate his crops to the others ; but 
the principal reason of all was said to be that on a common 
land no one has freedom to inclose his strips, without 
a special permission and Act of Parliament. 

The 6th April, 1748. 

In the morning we set out again, with the same man 
who accompanied us the day before, on a walk to a place 
where they dig the white, hard, chalky stone of which 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 283 

churches, houses, &c, in this district are built. This 
kind of stone is here called Freestone, and shall be 
described immediately below ! 

Akrarnas belagenhet, &c. 

The fields between Little Gaddesden and Dagnal lay 
for the most part on long sloping sides of the chalk hill. 
A great part of them were laid out in broad-lands, especi- 
ally those on which barley was now sown. These broad- 
lands, breda aker-stycken, lay almost entirely flat, so 
that they were not higher in the middle. Between each 
broad-land there always went a water-furrow drawn 
from the highest part of the field down to the dale. 
Down at the bottom, where the water-furrows and 
broad-lands ended, was a water-furrow drawn across 
the others, but commonly this defect was remarked, 
that this [T. I. p. 280] furrow had laid an earth- 
bank at the end of every water-furrow running down 
to it, without the owner having taken the trouble to 
shovel up the mould out of the water-furrows running 
down the field so as to leave the water free escape into 
the cross-furrow. Mr. Ellis's fields were in this respect 
nothing better than the others. It seems also difficult 
to avoid the result that the water, if a wet summer 
should happen, would here come to be dammed up and 
injure the plants. 

Halm-tak. Straw thatch. 

On most of the houses, where we went to-day, in 
Dagnal as elsewhere, the roofs were mostly of thatch, 
voro taken merendels af halm, built in the usual 
manner, previously described, very steep, and 1 foot in 
thickness. Sometimes also the highest part of the gable- 
wall, getting on for half of the gable from the top, 
upifr&n, was clad with straw ^ or made like a thatch 



284 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

roof, so that some of these roofs somewhat resembled the 
so-called Italian roofs. The carl who accompanied us 
said that these roofs are subject to great risk of fire and 
sparks, whence it happens that they are now beginning 
to provide themselves with tile roofs, tegel-tak, as fast 
as they can afford to. The roof-tile, taktegel, which 
they use here for their roofs is almost always of the 
square kind,* and flat like shingles, tak-span. They 
are made and burnt from the yellow earth, which is found 
everywhere about here. In many places they had at least 
tiles on the cottage, or the part of the cottage, in which 
the fire was, still there were a great many cottages 
thatched with straw thatch. 

Tre-hjulad vagn, at kora sad, &c, med. 

Three-wheeled wagon to carry seedy &c, with. 
At Dagnal we saw a little vagn with three wheels to 
carry seed, harrows, ploughs, etc. in, on to the fields, and 
for other purposes. The diameter of the wheels, which 
were all the same size, was 2 feet. Above the cart, 
karran, was an awning, skrinda, of 6 good [T. I. p. 
281] feet long and 3 feet broad. The wheels were set so 
that one stood in front and two behind, side by side, as in 
a cart, karra. The front wheel was fastened to and ran 
in the shafts, exactly like the wheel on a wheel-barrow, 
where it would nevertheless have been better if it had 
been so arranged that in turning it could have been able 
to turn itself about in the same way as the front wheels 
under a wagon.f 

Rariteten af kallor, backor, och &ar har p& 
orten. 

The rarity of springs, becks, and rivers in this district. 
It was remarkable that in the whole of this district 

* And still is, 1886. I have seen no pantiles in this district. [J. L.] 
f Similar wagons are now used by railway contractors. [J. L.J 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 285 

it was a very rare thing to get to see a spring. The 
parishes or the villages lay partly on the chalk hills, 
partly in the dales in the same, yet commonly without 
having access to any spring. This was so at Little 
Gaddesden, and at other villages. All the water they 
had was taken out of wells or ponds, brunnar eller 
dammar. Thus there were at nearly every village, one 
or more large ponds expressly dug to be collecting places 
for the water. Here the people took their water, and 
here the cattle slaked their thirst. In some places in the 
pastures there were also similar ponds for the sake of the 
cattle. The country is here little else than a collection 
of chalk hills, as it were, set beside each other, long-slop- 
ing nearly on all sides. Between these chalk-hills are 
deep dales. When the land in other parts of the world 
goes in such undulations up and down, or consists of a 
chain of hills and dales, there nearly always runs a small 
if not a larger beck down in the dales between the hills. 
So have I seen it in Russia, so it is in Sweden, so have 
I since found it in America, but not so here. The 
bottoms of the dales consist either of arable fields, 
meadows, pastures [T. I. p. 282] or commons, utmarker, 
without any running water being seen. It is very seldom 
that any beck is met with here. The conclusion, there- 
fore, seems to be that a land which consists of chalk- 
hills has indeed its springs, becks, and rivers ; but still 
not nearly in the same abundance as a land which con- 
sists of granite and clay soil, grabarg ocli lergrund. 
After we had to-day walked over very large arable fields, 
which lay smooth and even, and closely resembled the 
fields in Upland in Sweden, only that on these English 
ones no acre-reins are found, but the plots lay all in flat 
broad land, we met with a spring,* rakade vi pa en 

* This was Buckshead or Boxstead Spring. [J. L.] 



286 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

kalla, as a great rarity in these districts. It took its 
rise in the middle of a large arable field, where it, with its 
beck, formed a valley 60 or 70 feet below the surface of 
the fields. In this deep dale the water streamed from 
under the earth in several places just as if small becks 
had come rushing out, and formed at once a tolerably 
large beck. The banks of the spring-beck, Kall-backs- 
backarna, consisted entirely of chalk, although they 
were now mostly overgrown with grass. 

Watercress. Down in the beck grew an abundance of 
Nasturtium aquaticum supinum* C.B. A common com- 
plaint was that high-lying districts had great want of 
water. 

Allehanda slags Halm til godsel. 
All kinds of straw for manure. 

At all the farms which we passed by to-day, we saw all 
kinds of straw laid out in the farm-yards, to be changed 
into manure in the way which has been described in 
detail above [p. 251, orig.~\. 

Sades-stackar pa palar eller stalpar. 

Ricks on poles or pillars. 
At Edgeborough,f Eaton, I and all the villages and farms 
we passed by to-day we saw a number of ricks of wheat, 
barley, oats, pease [T. I. p. 283], and beans, which there 
stood on pillars, stalpar, hewn out of the white so-called 
Freestone. The height of the pillars was 2 feet 6 inches to 
3 feet. Their shape, and the build of the stack in other 
respects the same exactly as has been described above 
[p. 265, orig. 267 above~\. But, besides these kinds of 

* Nasturtium Officinale. Watercress is still largely cultivated at all 
the chalk springs, of which there are six within a mile, and eight within the* 
two miles between Coombe Hole and Well Head inclusive. []. L.] 

f Still so called (1886), though spelt Eddlesborouqh. [J. L.] 

\ Eaton Bray. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 287 

stacks or rich, we also got to see at Eaton and Edgeborough, 
and at other farms, another build of ricks, which was as 
follows : — The rick, or the crop itself, was set on a 
staddle, botten, of twigs, which staddle stood on six 
posts of wood. The height of each post was 8 feet. In 
the middle of the same, or 4 feet from the ground, was a 
tin-plate of 6 inches broad, bent round the post to hinder 
the ascent of mice to the rick. At the upper ends the 
posts were cut in tenons, fitted into mortises in the 
horizontal beams which lay on them, and formed the 
bottom of the stack, or rick-staddle. Down at the 
ground these posts stood on logs, so that they might not 
be rotted away at the ends from the moistness of the 
ground. On the top the stack was very well thatched 
with straw. Commonly, these stacks were of the 
four-sided shape (as in Fig. p. 266 orig.). A dead rook 
was mostly hung thereupon to frighten others of the 
same kind. In these stacks there was the advantage 
that they could also be used as a skeel and shed, skjul 
OCh lider, to keep all different kinds of implements under 
for rain, for carts, ploughs, harrows, &c, were commonly 
placed under them ; but then it was necessary to look 
carefully to it that none of these implements were so 
arranged that they could serve the mice as a ladder up 
to the stack. These and many kinds of ricks were used 
only by those who had large farms, or gardar, may be 
of very many acres, for those who were small farmers or 
Landtman, had no need of such, because they soon 
arrived at the stage of thrashing out their crops. 

[T. I. p. 284.] Saten, at sitta p& vid spisar. 

Settles, to sit on by the fire-places. 
At the taverns or inns, krogarna, it was the custom 
that the carls sat by and around the hearth and either 
smoked tobacco or drank. It has been said before, that 



288 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

no spjall is used here, and that the door of the room 
is seldom shut, especially in taverns and inns, so that 
the wind has free entrance nearly from all sides. On 
the hearth the fire always lies and burns. Therefore, 
when it is cold, one can often warm oneself on one side 
and freeze on the other. To prevent this, there was 
used here in many places a kind of settle or bench, 
saten eller bankar, made of boards, in shape like a 
sofa with very high back, so that when one was sitting 
therein, the head could not be seen from behind. These 
settles, saffor, did not go in a straight line, but were 
curved like the arc of a circle, because those who sat in 
this settle thus had better advantage of the warmth of 
the fire, which came, as it were, from the centre. 

According to their size, six or more persons could find 
room to sit in them. When one sat in such, in front of 
the fire, he was never exposed to a draught on his back, 
because the high frame of close boards prevented that. 
Vinter foda for Bi. Winter food for Bees. 

The carl who accompanied us told us that the best 
food which can be given to bees in winter time is salt, 
which is finely powdered and set for them. He said 
further that the bees in this district are commonly fed in 
the winter with sugar and honey, which, however, is not 
nearly so good as this, viz., salt, however absurd it may 
seem to one who has never tried it. He assures me that 
out of ioo who keep bees there are not ten who know 
this [T. I. p. 285], not Mr. Ellis himself. The carl 
himself, however, had many times tried feeding bees 
with it. He believed that I should one day have 
occasion to thank him for it. 

Faren bette pa Hvete-brodd. 

Sheep pastured on Wheat-sprouts. 
The wheat fields now stood here in many places 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 289 

beautiful and green with luxuriant shoots, on to which 
flocks of sheep, Fare-hopar, were always driven to 
pasture there. As this was a Vale Land, or land con- 
sisting of large open fields in the vale, so there were not 
here used many inclosures bounded by living hedges, but 
mostly common fields, or lands, which lay in teg-skifte, 
lit. exchangeable slips, or ' lands,' for which reason, also, 
we saw here no inclosures sown with turnips or grass 
seed as food for sheep. 

Korn saddes. Barley was being sown. 

The folk were this day occupied everywhere in the 
fields in sowing barley, which was done on smooth or 
flat ploughed land, when it was sown out in the sama 
way as with us in Sweden, and was harrowed down. 

Akrarnas belagenhet. 

On the north side of Eaton [Bray] there were very 
large arable fields which lay* between the chalk hills in 
the vale, dalar, in sufficiently low-lying and wet places. 
They much resembled the fields, akrarna, in Upland, 
in this, that these were large, and lay quite flat and not 
on hills. 

Since they lay so low and were so very wet, they 
were all laid out in Ridge Acre lands, or in the Westmanland 
manner. They differed only from them in this respect, 
that along the middle of the highest part of each ridge 
there went a little water-furrow 6 to 9 inches deep, and 
the same breadth on the top. In the water-furrows 
between the ridges there now stood a large quantity of 
water. No other ditches were seen. Wheat was sown 
on a part of these fields, and [T. I. p. 286] they were 
now very busy sowing barley on the other. 

* On the Gault. [J. L.] 



29O KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Snackor uti ymnoghet. Abundance of Snails. 

We went through an inclosure, tappa, where was a 
little wood of leaf-trees. In it there lay on the ground 
under the trees a very large number of snails. 

Breda aker-renar vid hackar och hvar-fore. 

Broad acre-reins by the hedges, and why. 

In nearly all small inclosures and tofts, tappor, of 
arable in this district at Little Gaddesden, as well as in 
other places, the * reins,' renarna, by the hedges were 
commonly of considerable breadth — 12 feet wide or more. 
I asked the reason of this. The answer was that, as in 
all these places there is very little meadow-land, ang, they 
carefully cultivated the reins to increase their supply of 
hay. Besides that, it is not convenient to have the 
ploughed fields too near to the hedges, for as the trees 
of which the hedges consist, run out into the soil of the 
ploughed portion, so no crop can grow near the hedge, 
because the roots of the trees then draw all the nourish- 
ment out of the soil, for which reason it is also found 
that the seed which is sown too near the hedge, as it 
were, dwindles away and dies out. 

Beskrifning pa Tatternels* Stengrufva. 

Description of the Totternhoe stone-mine [called the " Quarry- 
pit," 1886.] 

We went afterwards to the place where the white 
stone is hewn, which is here called Freestone, and of which 
churches and other houses, &c, are built. The place 
where it is taken out is one of the highest chalk hills in 
this district, situated in Bedfordshire, just 6 miles north 
of Little Gaddesden. The nearest village to it is called 

* Tatternel. Still so called (1886), though spelt Totternhoe. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 29 1 

Tattemel, after which the mine or stone-pit, grufvan 
eller Sten-brottet, likewise got its [T. I. p. 287] 
name. 

In some places these chalk hills were long-sloping, in 
other places steeper. In some places the ploughed fields 
were on the top of all, where the chalk seems white 
enough, yet not quite so white as chalk, doubtless because 
it has from time to time been mixed with all sorts of 
different manures which have been carried on to the 
fields. Here there were ploughed fields in many places 
on the top of these chalk hills, when just under the same, 
many fathoms into the hill there were large ' drifts ' or 
'adits,' ganger, where they hewed and dug up this 
stone. 

When the hill was observed, on a side where it was 
steep and all the grass sward was off, so that the clear 
white chalk showed itself to the open day, it then lay 
mostly in this order : 

Ft. 

On the top was the grass sward, gras-skarpan, 
with the soil, svartmyllen, immediately under it 
about 1 foot thick, or sometimes a little less 1 o 

After that the ordinary chalk came on, which 
however was blended with the harder kind of chalk 
which is here called Hurlok, and is so hard that 
one cannot write with it. The deeper one gets 
the more he meets with this Hurlok, and less and 
less of ordinary loose chalk, till after 3 or 4 fathoms 
perpendicular depth there is nothing else than bare 
Hurlok 24 o 

Among the chalk and Hurlok, flints next to never 
appear, so that flint is here very rare. When one comes 
still farther down, this Hurlok begins to be mingled with 
Freestone, when the Hurlok, as one gets deeper, diminishes 
more and more, while the Freestone on the other hand 

u 2 



292 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

increases, tager til, until very low down one sees 
nothing else but bare Freestone. 

[T. I. p. 288.] This freestone is dug deep under the 
hills. Here were three places, where they had formerly 
hewn the same, and where adits down at the foot of the 
hill went far under the earth, or the chalk hill. I was as 
far in as the ends of two of them, one of which was 
longer than the other. The former went as far as 40 
poles — 660 feet under ground. 

At the entrance into the hill the same was walled 
round for about 12 feet, as a door to this Freestone, to 
prevent the Hurhk on the steep side of the hill from 
slipping down and closing up the entrance again. But 
after one gets farther in, it was not any longer walled, 
but the roof and walls consisted entirely of Freestone, 
just as nature had set it there. When anyone wished to 
enter, a light, which was carried in the hand to light one- 
self with, was lighted at the entrance of the adit. For 
after one had come 6 or 7 fathoms into the mine, there 
was no more daylight, but it was coal-black darkness as 
of night. The breadth of these adits under ground was 
for the most part 6 feet, the height 7 feet. Still the 
breadth and height were sometimes a little greater, 
sometimes again somewhat less. The water now trickled 
down everywhere through the roof, or vault of the adits, 
gangarna, from the hill above, ofvan ifran backen, 
which was said to come from the snow and rain which 
had collected on the hill in the winter-time, but in the 
summer, according to the unanimous account of the 
workmen, this is everywhere as dry as it is on a dry 
highway road. The carls avail themselves of this water 
which is thus filtered down, silas ned, when they would 
sharpen their tools with which they perform their work, 
but for nothing else. Both roof and walls were very 
uneven, for sometimes the sides projected, &c, some- 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 293 

times went in hollows, according as [T. I. p. 289] it 
occurred to them to hew the stone, and its natural 
divisions. The adits into the chalk hill went mostly 
horizontally, yet they sloped a little down in some places. 
On both sides of the main adits there were other adits, 
both ad angulos acutos, rectos, et obtusos, so that if the 
entrances of all these cross-galleries had been open, this 
would have been to one unacquainted with them the worst 
Labyrinth and maze, irrgang, there could possibly be, 
but these adits were now mostly filled up with the loose 
bits of Freestone which had been broken off in the process 
of hewing. 

The stone divided itself here in the mine all in cracks 
or fissures which all went from above downwards, ofvan 
ifran necUlt, more or less perpendicularly, but no 
fissures ever ran horizontally or very obliquely, which was 
the unanimous account of the workmen. These fissures 
were sometimes broader, 6 inches wide or more, some- 
times quite narrow, but nearly all very deep, so that a stick 
4 feet long could be stuck into them without reaching 
the end of them. These stones clear each other some- 
what perpendicularly ad angulos rectos, or as though the 
whole of the lower part of the chalk hill inside, as it 
were, consisted of four-sided pillars, placed perpen- 
dicularly, yet of unequal thickness, that is to say, that 
some of these square pillars were larger, some less. 
Similarly the sides also are not of the same breadth, so 
that when on one pillar all four sides are of equal breadth, 
on another only the two opposite sides may be of the 
same breadth — e.g., two of the opposite sides may be 
6 feet broad, but again the two other sides standing 
opposite to one another [T. L p. 290] are not more than 
4 feet, 2 feet, or 18 inches broad, and so forth. One 
does not here expect an absolute mathematical equality 
in breadth of the four, or of the two sides which stand 



294 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

opposite to each other, but one is content if only they 
are somewhat about the same breadth. Thus these 
stones naturally clear each other perpendicularly on all 
sides, and form as it were perpendicular sides of cubes 
and oblongs, but they are never naturally divided horizon- 
tally, but all horizontal division must be effected 
artificially. When the carls wish to have a stone broken 
horizontally of any perpendicular height or thickness, 
they hew with their picks, hackor, a horizontal line 
where they wish it to be divided, and then knock wedges 
of iron into it, by which they spring it loose horizontally 
to any thickness they please. 

The loosened pieces are afterwards carried out on a 
low wagon or truck, vagn, which instead of four wheels 
has two rollers, kaflar, of ash, one at each end. The 
diameter of each roller is nearly i foot. The body of the 
wagon is made of solid oak timbers. This wagon, with 
the stone which lies upon it, is drawn by the carls along 
the adit till they get it out to the day, and if they after- 
wards wish to have it up the hill at the entrance of the 
mine, it is wound up along the road with a windlass, and 
is so drawn to the place where they intend to hew and 
work at it. 

The stone, down in the mine, and when it was first 
hewn, was of a grey or clay colour, and so soft that it 
could be cut with a knife as easily as a hardened or dry 
pot-clay, Spik-lera. Similarly one could then [T. I. p. 
291] with the hands and fingers break it in pieces, pro- 
vided the pieces were not too thick ; but when it had come 
up to the day, and lain for a time in the open air, it be- 
came very white, although not quite so white as chalk : 
for it could be seen that there was a considerable difference, 
if one wrote with a piece of chalk on a wall built of this 
stone ; which I tried, and the man who had the direction 
of the mine, also showed me. Similarly it has also the 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 295 

property that after it has come into the open air it 
always hardens more and more as it gets older and comes 
to lie longer in the open day. Hence it is, that as soon 
as it comes out of the mine or stone-pit, it is worked by 
the carls, while it is still soft, for any purpose they please 
and which it can be used for. 

That these chalk hills where this stone is quarried 
have not been as they are from the world's beginning, the 
various heterogenea seem to testify, which are often found 
in hewing in the same, and of which we noted the 
following : — 

1. Kesballar. Balls of iron pyrites. For the most 
part round and spherical, uneven on the surface, some- 
times externally ochre-colored, sometimes shining like a 
ball of iron pyrites, Svafvel-kes. When they were 
broken asunder, it was seen that a centre existed nearly 
in the middle of the stone from which radii proceeded to 
all sides of the periphery. The carls called them Crow's 
Gold, that is, Krake-guld, and did not know that they 
were of any use. When laid in the fire they burned, and 
emitted strong fumes of sulphur. These lay here and 
there in the stone. They had a considerable weight, 
nearly as great as that of a piece of iron of a similar 
size. 

[T. I. p. 292.] 2. Tra-rotter, roots of trees. The 
labourers said they sometimes find pieces in this stone 
of the thickness of a carl's arm, on which not only can 
the bark be seen and separated from the tree within, 
but also it is plainly seen that they are small pieces 
of oaks. Such fragments seldom occur here of more 
than 1 foot long. I was so lucky as to get here a 
stone in which such a twig or root lay, which the carls 
hewed loose, together with a piece of the stone, and gave 
it me as a rarity. The twig in this stone is about the 
thickness of a little finger. 



296 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

3. Concha, Pectinites dicta. The shell called P. oc- 
curred in great numbers in these stones. Seldom was 
any side of a stone hewn flat on which was not found 
one, if not more of its shells. The number of cockles, 
Strimmorna, was also not equal upon all the shells. 
The small ones, the thickness of a nail, here formed the 
greatest number. 

4. Concha, Oftrea dicta. Oyster shells. We saw two 
of these which lay in the side of a large stone which we 
had not liberty to hew asunder. They were so naturella 
that it seemed as if some one had taken an oyster shell 
and crammed it into the stone. The man who had the 
supervision of the mine said that such natural oyster 
shells are very often found in this stone when it was hewn 
asunder. These oyster shells, as well as the aforenamed 
Pectinites, always lay, according to the supervisor's 
account, horizontalin the stone as it stands in the mine, 
or so that they turn the convex side down and the con- 
cave up. 

[T. I. p. 293.] We could not see many heterogenea 
here, nor did the supervisor of the miners know of many 
kinds, however much we questioned him about them. 

The use of this freestone, and the purposes it is used 
for, are various. The principal is to build houses of it, 
when it has first been hewn here at the mine into a 
four sided oblong form. Likewise it is used for win- 
dow-frames and door-posts, and arches over fire- 
places, windows, and doors, for several kinds of 
pedestals and pillars, the bottoms of baking-ovens, and 
other such things. Most of the churches in this 
district are entirely built of this stone, which indicates 
the great age of this stone-mine. A quantity of it is 
carried to various gentlemen's estates round to build 
houses and other things. The small pieces which are 
struck off and chipped in the mine, when the stone is 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 297 

broken loose, are used, partly to be carried on to the roads 
to fill up the deep wagon and cart-ruts ; partly they are 
carried home by some farmers, brayed into fine dust 
mixed with water, and worked into a cement, bruk, of 
which the floors of malt houses and ' lodges,' or the part 
of the barns where they thrash corn, are made, because 
this, thus prepared, binds very strongly together. I asked 
the carls whether lime can be burned from this stone ? 
They all answered no, and added that one may burn it 
as long as he likes, but he will never make lime of it — 
which I leave there. Likewise they said that it is no 
good for laying as a floor, because it softens and is re- 
duced to a sediment by water which comes to stand upon 
it [T. I. p. 294]. The tools and other things which the 
miners use here at their work are the following : — Inside 
the mine, where the stone is hewn loose, there are used 
only a pick, iron-wedges, and a mallet, hacka, jarn- 
viggar, och klubba. The picks or pickaxes, hac- 
korna eller yxorna, exactly resemble the picks which 
we use in Sweden to hack mill-stones with, only that 
these English ones are very sharp, and are often 
sharpened. The iron-wedges and mallets are of the 
ordinary kinds. They avail themselves of the before 
described (p. 290, orig. 294 above) wagon to carry the larger 
stones out of the mine ; but small bits are carried out 
with a wheel-barrow. All the labour in the mine is per- 
formed with a light, because not the least daylight can 
get to the places where they work, but when the light is 
put out or taken away, it is pitch dark. After they have 
got the stone to the place they wish, they hew it with the 
aforenamed picks, of which some are larger, some smaller, 
some are broader, others narrower. With these the 
stone is hewn tolerably even and flat on the sides. If 
anyone wishes to have a very broad stone, or any other 
narrower stone in half, a long saw is used, with which 



290 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

one or two carls saw it asunder, just as they please. To 
make the sides even, and the corners square, a ruler 
or straight-edge and set square are used, brukas lineal 
OCh vinkel-hake. To finally make all quite plane and 
smooth, they use an iron scraper or rimer, skaf-eller 
slat-jarn, with which they scrape or shave, skafva, it flat. 

Down in the mine which went under ground, were set 
here and there on the walls of the adits fast-stuck shoots 
of Wild Thyme, Timjan, sweet briar, Torn-rosor, &c, 
about which the carls related that if these are set there 
fresh in the summer time, they will remain there green and 
as fresh, and smelling as sweet in a couple of months' time. 

Some whom curiosity had driven [T. I. p. 295] down 
or into this mine had written their names with the date 
on the walls. 

I asked the carls whether those who continually 
labour in these mines are affected by any particular ill- 
ness above others ? They answered that they for the 
most part get to enjoy good health, and are not aware 
that they are exposed to more illnesses or cramps than 
others. It is also very seldom that any stone falls down 
by itself from the roof into the adits. They remembered 
only one unlucky accident, which had been timed in 
such a manner that a carl had been killed by a stone 
which fell from the roof and crushed him to death. This 
may doubtless have been the god-forgotten man of 
whom Mr. Ellis tells in his " Shepherd's Sure Guide," 
pp. 231-2. 

The carls also said that they had not remarked any 
sign of approaching weather from this mine. 

When this stone is hewn, sawn, or scraped with an 
iron, it smells and stinks like a Stink-stein, Orsten. 

The place and entrance to the mine was well on for 20 
fathoms (120 feet) perpendicular depth below the highest 
summit of the chalk hill, if not more. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 299 

In several places appeared unsightly large pits, 
gropar, which now on the bottom were overgrown 
with grass, where they in former times had hewn up this 
stone. The workmen told us that in one and each of 
the same pits there is a hole or adit in under ground, 
but that the entrances to them were now fallen in. The 
deepest hole which was 40 poles into the hill where they 
were now working, and in which I was, was said to be 
over 500 years old. The whole mine was said to have 
been worked for 1,000 years. There was a house or two 
[T. I. p. 296] here built of this stone thatched with straw, 
in which the workmen took their meals, kept their tools, 
and worked in bad weather. 

Akrarna. The ploughed fields which lay on the 
chalk hills over or upon the mine were sown either with 
wheat or black oats, which were both said to grow on 
this soil very luxuriantly. But other kinds of crops do 
not flourish there so well, because the earth is too dry. 

[Here omit 16 lines. The art. ' Krita forvandlad 
til flinta,' in which Kalm records a superstition that 
chalk lying on fields exposed for some time to the sun and 
open air is changed to flint.] 

Rinnande vatten genom Kallare h&ller drickat 
svalt. 

Running water through cellars keeps the beer fresh. 

In Eaton [Bray] where we dined, the landlord showed 
us his cellar in which he had his ale, 61, and beer, 
dricka, which was situated close to a little running beck, 
and so arranged that the water came to run in the cellar 
right under the middle of the beer-barrels. On either side 
of the cellar was a row of beer-barrels, and the water ran 
[T. I. p. 297] under each row, for which purpose it was also 
at the entrance to the cellar divided into two branches. 
He assured us that the beer never turns sour in this cellar 



300 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

in summer, but is kept quite fresh by this water running 
below. When he wished, he could always exclude the 
water from the cellar, if only the hole was closed again, 
through which it ran in ; when it flowed its course in the 
beck itself which ran close by the cellar. 

At stiga til hastar fran en trappa. 

To mount horses from a step. 
Everywhere here at the farms in the country and in the 
small places, there was a little trappa or ' mounting- 
step/ built 3 feet or 4 feet high, with steps up to the 
highest part of it, on which the men, but especially the 
women, went up when they wished to set themselves in 
the saddle upon the horse. This mounting-step was 
sometimes built against the wall of the house ; but at 
times also it stood by itself alone out in the yard or out 
on the hill. 

Qvarnar. Mills. 

On the tract where we went to-day we saw two or 
three windmills, built in the same way as is most usual 
with us in Sweden. We also saw a water-mill at one 
place,* which differed in nothing from ours more than 
that here there were quartered a frightful number of 
large rats, which they called Hanoverian rats. 

Akrars belagenhet, &c. 

On the south side of Edgeborough there were very 
large fields. They were all laid out in broadland and teg- 
skifte, but not the smallest acre-rein, &ker-ren, or 
ditch was found on them. These last, however, were 
not required, because they lay sloping enough. They were 
now devoted to crops for this summer. We remarked 



* There are now three water-mills at Eddlesborough, and one at 
Totternhoe. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 301 

here what we [T. I. p. 298] had also found before on all 
much-sloping fields in the whole of this district, that the 
water-furrows between the ' lands ' were not drawn from 
the highest parts of the fields to the lowest, but across, 
and almost parallel with the beds of the valleys, which 
was done that the water in heavy rain might not wash 
away the mould and the sown crop, as it would otherwise 
do to some extent if the water-furrows ran right down 
from the hill to the valley, which is prevented by draw- 
ing out the ploughed fields and furrows in the aforesaid 
way. 

Para-falla pa akrar, och dessa Kreaturs mang- 
faldiga nytta. 

Sheep-folds on the arable fields, and the manifold uses of these 
animals. 
Sheep dung and urine are here considered as the 
choicest manure for arable land, and the folding of sheep 
on fallow land is reckoned such a useful thing that it 
cannot be paid for in money. It is also only through 
sheep that many a poor man has all his food and the 
necessaries of life. The thing goes on thus : — A poor 
man lays by something by labour, or how he can, so that 
he is just able to buy a few sheep — the more the better. 
Thereupon he goes to a farmer and offers to fold his 
sheep at night on his fallow fields, if the farmer will give 
him a reasonable payment therefor. The farmer is quite 
satisfied with an offer which is so good for his fields, and 
agrees with the owner of the sheep to pay him a certain 
sum for every acre of land of his on which he folds his 
sheep. If now the sheep-man sees that the farmer will 
not give him so much as he thinks he has a right to ask, 
he tells another farmer about it, and always strikes a 
bargain with the highest bidder, or where he gets the 
largest [T. I. p. 299] profits. When the agreement is 



302 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

entered upon, the sheep-man drives his sheep in the day- 
time to pasture on the Common-lands, or Almanningar, 
and [common] ' arable-field-pastures, ' betes-akrar,* or 
also on the farmer's own land, where he always has 
freedom to pasture them, because they by the droppings 
which they leave after them always pay for what they 
eat. The abundance of all kinds of weeds, which grow 
upon the fields, gives them also an abundant feed. The 
sheep-man goes himself to pasture with them, F&re- 
mannen g&r sjelf vail med dem, and in the evening 
he drives them out on to the fallow-fields of the one whom 
he has made an agreement with, where they are folded 
at night in the same way as has been described above 
[p. 262 orig. 263 above]. The more the sheep-man's sheep 
are increased, the more acres of land can he manure in 
the year, and, consequently, the larger is his profit. 
When it is very bad weather, he feeds them at home at 
night with all kinds of straw and hay, which he afterwards 
converts into manure, in the manner which has been 
described above, and sells the same. The mild nature 
of the air here in England which allows the sheep to go 
out to pasture the whole year, summer and winter (and 
in consequence nearly all the time they are folded on the 
arable), causes the profit on a small flock of sheep to be 
considerable, especially when the advantage of England 
is added to that, that they have here no need to fear 
wolves, vargar, which are not found in this country. 

The sheep's wool, and the manure collected at home 
in bad weather, from the straw, together with the sheeps' 
droppings, all of which the sheep-man can sell, in 
addition to his being able now and then to sell some 
sheep to the butcher, richly repay the few pence he had 

* Of course these, which are only pastures after the crops are carried, 
disappear with the enclosures. [J. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 303 

laid out on hay and straw for the sheep at times when 
bad weather had compelled him to keep them at home. 
Some assured us that when a man is owner of thirty or 
forty sheep he can [T. I. p. 300], by only folding them 
on another man's arable, gain for himself in the year 
from £ 10 to £12 sterling. Others said that if a man has 
150 sheep, he can in two weeks' time just manure an acre 
of land with them, and receives commonly from the 
farmer 16s. in payment for each acre of land he so 
manures. 

The sheep are kept no more than one night on each 
place in the field, but they stand tolerably thick. The 
farmer leaves the man entire freedom to bait his sheep 
in his own way, and pays him, nevertheless, the above- 
named summa for each acre of land. Some of these 
sheep-men, F&ra-man, sell their sheep in the winter, 
and buy others in the spring instead, from the districts 
where they keep many sheep. They do this for the 
reason that in mid-winter they cannot so easily fold 
sheep on the arable, but are then often obliged to keep 
them at home and feed them with all kinds of straw and 
hay. 

Late in the evening we returned to Little Gaddesden. 

The 8th April, 1748. 
Kyrkotak af halm eller Ljung. 

Church-roofs of straw or ling. 

Mr. Ellis told us that he had seen, on his travels in 
Suffolk, churches with stone walls, but for want of some- 
thing else, thatched with straw in the same way as 
houses are here thatched with it. Such a straw thatch 
he said may last 100 years. A gentleman from Cumber- 
land told us the same, that in one place and another 
there are churches in Cumberland thatched with ling. 



304 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 301.] L6f til bransle. Leaves as fuel. 

Mr. Ellis told us that poor folk use to collect the leaves 
which fall down from the trees, dry the same, and use 
it for fuel. 

Huru kalk brannes af Krita. 

How lime is burnt from chalk. 

When I to-day questioned Mr. Ellis about the process 
how lime is burned from chalk, he bade me accompany 
him to a place where they burn it, which I did, and found 
it done as follows :— 

Here was an ordinary walled kiln, Ugn, in which bricks 
are burned. In it lime and bricks are burned together and 
at the same time. The chalk is first dug up in large or 
smaller pieces out of the chalk hills and is carried to the 
brick-kiln. Then, when one wishes to burn bricks, the 
kilns are walled over nearest to the fire with bare chalk, 
and that in the quantity which one wishes to have of 
lime, or has of chalk, but not more than that the bricks 
also may be burned through. 

The largest pieces of chalk are laid nearest the fire 
and the smaller ones on the top, ofvanpa. Above, 
Ofvanfor, the chalk are laid the bricks, tegelstenar, 
which are burned in the usual way. After that a fire is 
made in the kiln pipes, Ugns-piporna, of which there 
were two. First of all large wood is laid in, with which 
the kiln is made hot. Afterwards only small bundles of 
twigs, ris-qyistar, are used. Genista spinosa, furze, with 
grass and moss, or also Brackens. With these the burning 
is continued for three or four days and nights, dygnen, 
when both the bricks and the chalk are full-burnt. 
After the bricks and chalk have somewhat cooled, they 
are covered over on the top with moss and furze blended 
together, such as they had cut and bound together on 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 305 

the common* At the same time all the kiln-mouths are 
also stopped, so that no moisture may draw in. There- 
upon the bricks are first taken out and afterwards [T. I. 
p. 302] the chalk, which chalk is now, after burning, 
much lighter than before. It is then slaked with water, 
like another unslaked lime, when it falls asunder into a 
fine white meal or powder, which is the lime with which 
they here build houses, manure arable fields and meadows, 
etc. 

Par-bete, som ar godt. Sheep-pasture which is good. 

I asked Mr. Ellis what the nature and quality of the 
sheep-pastures was here in England in the Provinces, 
where they had the best sheep and the choicest wool. He 
answered, all the sheep pastures in the said Provinces 
consist of bare high chalk hills or escarpments, krit- 
barg eller backar, yet differing from these districts 
here in Hertfordshire, in that there are no hedges, but all 
common land and open plains. He said further that 
the sheep will not thrive so well in this district, where 
there are too many inclosures surrounded with living 
hedges, although the pasture itself is good enough ; but 
least of all will they flourish on wet places and Vale lands 
where they always fare ill. He added that the place 
the sheep should thrive best upon, ought to be dry hills, 
where the wind has free access on all sides, and is not 
hindered by hedges, &c. There should be no sumpy 
places. The higher the place lies up in the air the 
better for the sheep. If the meadows lie low, but consist 
of salt-grass, the sheep also thrive tolerably well, although 
they do not make such fine wool. 



* Pa falter. Ivinghoe Common. See T. I. pp. 197-8 and p. 256 orio. 
and pp. 197 and 256 above. [J. L.] 



306 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Hushallningen in Cumberland. 
From a man from Cumberland I learned the following. 
There are no chalk hills, but only high granite mountains, 
graberg. The sheep are much smaller than those in 
other parts of England, and the wool considerably 
inferior, but the flesh good. The horses not of so large 
a kind as here. [T. I. p. 303.] The sheep go out and 
bait the whole winter. A great number of cows are 
kept there. The cheese, OSten, which is there made 
is not so good as in other parts of England ; but the 
butter, smoret, is beautiful, and is bought there for 
many places. The swine there are beautiful and fat, 
and every year a multitude of them are driven from 
thence to London. Very little wheat is sown there, 
but rye largely, and still more barley and oats, of which 
two last most of their bread consists. Earth-walls, 
jord-vallar, are used mostly as fences, til stangsel, 
around their arable fields. In ploughing, aker-korsel, 
they mostly use horses. In the river which divides 
Cumberland from Skottland are found the best salmon 
which occur in England. The farmers are mostly them- 
selves the owners of their farms, or the home, hemma, 
they live at. It is rare to find any beeches there, but 
oakwoods enough. No goats are kept there. The 
houses are in some places built of clay and straw mixed 
together, but in some places in Skottland the walls of 
the houses are made only of grass turfs, grastorf, and 
thatched with straw or ling. The fire-places and fuel 
are used in the same way as in England, viz : without, 
spjall, coal is what they mostly burn. Carts are mostly 
used to drive in. The district is very cold in winter- 
time. Most of their manure for the fields is cattle dung. 

The gth April 
In the afternoon we walked about several arable-fields 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 307 

and meadows, as well as inclosures to make notes on one 
thing and another. 

Af hvad vaxter hoet bestar. 

Of what plants the hay consists. 

On p. 227 orig. 225 above, are enumerated of what 
plants the hay consists in one of the Duke of Bridgewater's 
hay lathes, holador. [T. I. p. 304.] 

To-day we amused ourselves by seeking out and 
describing the plants which occurred in a haystack at 
Hudnall. The hay smelt incomparably sweet, so that 
there could hardly be a more agreeable scent from hay. 
The owner said they had no other art with it than to 
take care that it is dry weather when the hay is cut, 
and the same dry weather will require it frequently to 
happen that it is cut the one day and before the evening 
of the next day it stands in the haystack ; only that it 
has necessarily been turned and dried before it is set in 
the stack. He ascribed the good scent that the hay had 
only to the goodness of the soil. How it is with this, I 
leave there, but this I know, that I have seen not only 
here where the soil, jordmon, was blended with chalk, 
and on the chalk hills, but elsewhere in England where 
the soil consisted of Gravel, grus, and where no chalk 
was found for several miles — I have seen hay, which in 
colour was somewhat red, til fargen ronnat n&got, 
and which at a distance many might have taken for 
spoilt, but which had nevertheless, the loveliest scent 
that hay can ever have, so that it was a pleasure to 
smell it, and which besides that was eaten more than 
greedily by horses and cattle. The art, konsten, by 
which this was prepared, shall be discussed a little farther 
on. As this hay which we saw to-day was grown here 
on high banks or hills, hoga backar, we sought dili- 
gently to see whether we could not find Linnaeus' far- 



308 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

gras or far-svingel in it, but it was labour in vain. 
We saw not a sign of it. For the use of those who know 
how to apply the principles to the care of meadows, I 
will give a list of the plants of which the hay consisted. 
In the same way as I have done before I will set down 
the plants in the order of their abundance. They were 
the following : — 

[T. I. p. 305.] 1. Cynosurus, Kambexing, Linn. 
Fl. Sv. 31 was commonest of all [C. cristatus.] 

2. F&lth.ven, (Linn. Fl. Sv. 62) very common. 
The fine blades of this made here the best grass-growth 
and the most hay. [Agrostis capillaris.] 

3. Anthoxanthum (Linn. Fl. Sv. 29), enough. [A. 
odoratum.] 

4. Hvit Vapling, White Clover, much. [Trifolium 
repens.] 

5. Hundexing, (Linn. Fl. Sv. 83) tolerably common. 
[Dactylis Glomerata.] 

6. Lolium Perenne, some. [Rye grass.] 

7. Rod Vapling, red clover. 

8. Angs-svingel, 91. [Festuca Elatior.] 

9. Angs-gron, 77. [Poa angustifolia.] 

10. Plantago, 123. [P. Media.] 

11. Lotus pentaphyllos flore majore luteo splendente, 
C. B. 

12. Dens Leonis, Linn. 627. [Leontodon taraxacum, 
Dandelion.'] 

13. Jacea nigra 709, [Centaurea Jacea.] 

14. Mjolk-tistel, Hieracium,639. [H.umbellatum.] 

15. Angs-syra (Linn. Fl. Sv. 295). [Ang-syra. 
Rumex acetosa Linn. Lilja Sk. Fl. 239, Sorrel.'] Each of the 
foregoing group was found here in tolerable abundance-. 

16. Gramen Lanatum Dalech 67. [Holcus Mollis.] 

17. Ang-hafre, 96. [Avena pratensis.] 

18. Angs-Kampe, 50. [Phleum pratense.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 309 

19. Lathyrus Sylvestris lutea, 599. [L. pratensis.] 

20. Darr-gras, 80. [Briza Media, Quaking grass.'] 

21. R6d-svingel, 93. [Festuca rubra, subsp. of 
F. ovina, Hooker, Stud. FL, 1870, p. 448. Fescue-grass.] 

22. Tussilago Vulg. Coltsfoot. [T. farfara.] 

23. Equisetum pratense. 

24. Brunella. [Prunella vulgaris, self-heal.'] 

25. Millefolium vulg. alb., Bauh. Pin., 140. [Achillea 
Millefolium.] Yarrow, Milfoil. 

26. Cerastium Villoso-viscosum 379. [C. Triviale 
Link, is the C. Viscosum Linn, of W. Hooker and Arnott, 
see J. Hooker, St. Fl. 1870, p. 55. Mouse-ear Chickweed.] 

27. Bellis Sylvestris minor C[aspar] B[auhin]. [B. 
perennis L. Daisy.] 

28. Linum Catharticum [Linn. Purging flax.] 

Of each of this last group there was found only a 
single example. 

KLades-lappar til godsel pa &kern. 

Rags for manure on the arable. 

We afterwards went over small inclosures which were 
sown with wheat, partly in broadland and partly in four- 
thorough-stitches. Everywhere on these fields lay small 
pieces of clothes or clothes-laps and clouts, or rags of all 
sorts of different colours, some of which lay down in the 
ground, others on the surface. They were bought from 
a tailor in London, and carried here from thence, and laid 
out on the fields as an excellent manure to increase 
[T. I. p. 306] the growth of crops. The soil, jordmon, 
was here the same brick-coloured earth as is found every- 
where on Chilturn Land, but in addition these fields were 
very full of flints. 

Bokars vaxt OCh alder. Beeches' growth and age. 

On the north side of a hill there were several beeches 



3IO KALM'S ENGLAND. 

cut down, where we passed the time for an hour to see 
their age. All these stood in the open air not close 
together, but far away from each other. 

A beech trunk was measured which had at the large 
end fifty-four sap-rings. The diameter was just 2 feet. 
The sap-rings which were found nearest the heart, 
karnan, were narrowest and smallest, smalast OCh 
smarst, from which they grew larger, gradatim ; the 
further they lay from the heart out towards the surface, 
the larger they were. The length of the log was 9 feet. 
At the small end there were forty-four sap-rings, and 
the diameter was 19 inches. The distance between the 
heart and the surface which had turned towards the 
east, was 7 inches, the other 12 inches was all on the 
west side. 

Another beech trunk had at the large end seventy 
sap-rings. The diameter could not be measured where 
it was cut off at the roots, because the stem toward the 
roots branched out so much on all sides ; but 2 feet 6 
inches above the place where the large end was cut off, 
the diameter was found to be 19J inches. The length of 
the trunk was 17 feet. At the small end there were 59 
sap-rings ; the diameter 14J inches. 

Another beech-trunk had at the large end 51 sap-rings. 
The diameter was there 2 feet. The length of the log 10 feet 
3 inches. At the small end there were 41 sap-rings ; the 
diameter there i6£ inches. [T. I. p. 307.] Always when 
the diameter of a tree was measured, the bark was not 
included. 

Hedera ganska l&ng. Dess vaxt och aider. 

Ivy very long. Its growth and age. 

In a wood, en SkogS-park, we saw 3 or 4 bushes of 
Hedera Arborea C.B., which were the highest and longest 
I ever yet saw. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 311 

They had twined themselves around beeches, and 
climbed up them right to the top. Their green leaves 
covered the beeches so as to make them look at a distance 
as if they were covered with verdure, and with full fresh 
leaves close to the stem. The height of these ivy-bushes, 
to the best of our judgment, a good 60 feet if not more. 
We cut off one of the thickest, 4 feet from the ground, to 
see how old it was, and measured its thickness. The 
diameter was i| inches, and it had here thirty sap-rings, 
which showed its age in years. As it had climbed up the 
tree it had everywhere driven in a number of fibres 
and roots into the same, from its stem, to hold fast 
by. It had branched itself in many branches, which all 
ran upwards. Some went right up to the top, others 
wound themselves somewhat spirally round the tree. 
This is not particularly liked by wood-wards or gardeners, 
because it injures the trees, draws the nourishment from 
them, and causes decay. 

The 10th April, 1748. 

At forvara rotter om Vintern. 

To keep roots in the Winter. 
Our host told us that among the best ways that 
are practised in England for keeping carrots, parsnips, 
Mor-rotter, Palsternackor, and other roots in the 
winter uninjured by the cold, etc., is to lay them in dry 
wheat-straw. Mr. Ellis said that some keep them in dry 
sand [T. I. p. 308] in cellars. Others let them stand 
out on the land the whole winter, only that the land is 
covered well over with straw, or something else, so that 
the cold cannot get at them. 

Tecken till vaderlek af Bellis. 

Sign of the weather from Daisies. 
It was pleasant to see how Bellis sylvestris minor, C.B., 



312 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

which here grew in multitudes on all pastures and grass 
ground, and was now in full flower, drew together its 
petals when the air was cold, or when it was like rain or 
bad weather. A great many flowers of Syngenesia or 
floribus compositis [Composite] had this quality. 

Kes-ballar har och dar p& akrar. 

Balls of iron-pyrites here and there on the fields. 

I have before (p. 291, orig. 295 above) given a description 
of the Kes-ballar which lay embedded in the Freestone 
at Tatternel, and were found in abundance in the same 
stone mine. In our walks hither and thither in the fields 
and in other places in this district we often found these 
Kes-ballar, Crows' gold, Iron pyrites, either in pits where 
they had dug up the chalk to carry on to the fields for 
manure, or also out on the ploughed lands, in many 
places round Edgeborough, as well as here round Little 
Gaddesden. Those which are found on the fields have 
doubtless been carried there with the chalk from the 
chalk pits. When these had lain for a time on the fields, 
the air, rain, and sun had considerably altered their 
colour and appearance. They exactly resembled a piece 
of the iron ore which is dug up in bogs and morasses, 
and were of the same irony rust and ochre colour. The 
interior looked very much like Ochm, although it was 
harder, but the surface itself retained its radiated sul- 
phurous colour and structure. They had still their former 
considerable weight. [As these are found here in all chalk 
hills among the ordinary chalk [T. I. p. 309] so I ask, 
" May not the bottom of all chalk hills, although it be 
low down, consist of Freestone ? May not the chalk and 
Freestone differ, if only in the degree of hardness or 
development, according as they lie nearer the surface or 
deeper down ? May not this which is now Freestone, in 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 3T3 

former times have been chalk, or vice versd ? May not the 
chalk sometimes, perhaps, change first to Hurlock and 
afterwards to Freestone or vice versd ?" *] 

The nth April, 1748. 

Huru en ny hack anlagges. 

How a new fence is laid down. 

When anyone wishes to erect an entirely new hedge 
of living trees, either round arable fields, meadows, or 
other property, it is done here in Hertfordshire, where 
folk are held to be most expert in the art, in the following 
manner : — 

The hedge is planted generally in lined rectd. If the 
ground is free from trees and stubs, a pair of furrows 
are ploughed straight on, where the new hedge is to be 
planted. These furrows are turned towards each other, 
but if the ground is full of tree-roots, so that the plough 
cannot advance, the earth is commonly dug up with the 
spade. Some use not to dig up anything on the place 
they wish to plant, but are content with the mould they 
cast up out of the ditch. When the earth has thus been 
ploughed or dug up where the hedge is to be planted, a 
ditch is dug along and close beside the same, which 
ditch, after all the earth has been cast up out of it, is 
commonly 2 or 3 feet deep below the surface of the 
ground. This mould, which is taken out of the ditch, 
is cast on to the ploughed-up, or dug-up, earth, at first 
as much as to make a bank of 1 foot high or a little 
more. Thereupon, young shoots of hawthorn or sloe 

* In answer to the questions which I have enclosed in brackets : — 
The Totternhoe Stone, a marly sandstone, might be called a develop* 
ment of the Grey chalk, but that it lies at its base, above which the sandy 
element disappears. The answer to the latter questions is negative. They 
are separate beds. [J. L.] 



314 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

are taken, and cut [T. I. p. 310] off obliquely a good 4 
or 6 inches above the root, and afterwards planted in the 
cast-up bank all in a row, or in lined redd. The thickness 
of these shoots is about the size of a finger, sometimes a 
little less. They are set so close together that there is 
commonly not more than 3 inches between each. When 
they are planted there is made, as it were, a water- 
furrow right along the whole bank about 4 inches deep, 
in which these shoots are set by their roots, but are so 
placed that they do not come to stand perpendicular, but 
very much leaning towards the ditch, so that they might 
later on so much the better keep off the cattle. Upon 
that the furrow in which they are planted, is turned over 
again, by which mould is cast on to their roots, so that 
the newly-planted shoots often do not come to stand 
with their ends over an inch above the ground. The 
shoots which are commonly used for this purpose 
are either hawthorn or sloe, which are intermixed, but, 
besides these, there are set here and there, either at a 
certain distance or length from each other, or just as 
they please, small shoots of willows, Vilar, Salices ; 
beeches, B6k ; ash, Ask ; maple, Lonn ; lime, Lind ; 
elm, Aim ; and other leaf-trees ; which are cut off, so 
that they are as short as the others. When this has 
been arranged they begin to make the bank, vallen, 
higher, in that more mould is cast up out of the ditch on 
to the roots of the newly-planted shoots, till the wall or 
bank, vallen eller banken, has been raised 1 foot 
higher than when they were first planted, and of such a 
slope that when a stick is laid on the side or slope of the 
bank there is commonly 18 inches between the row the 
first shoots were set in, and the summit of this added 
earth. Herein is now planted, in exactly the same 
way, a row of hawthorn or sloe, and several of the above- 
named leaf-trees, whose [T. I. p. 311] roots are 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 315 

afterwards well covered over with the earth which has 
been cast out of the ditch. When a perpendicular 
line is erected from the row the lower planted shoots 
stand in, it is seen that they stand i foot nearer the ditch 
than the upper row, whence the slope of the bank 
towards the ditch can be judged. 

The earth which is here cast out of the ditch, 
and in which the hedge was planted, consisted of the 
brick-colored earth which is found everywhere about 
here, with some flint-sand and small flint stones among 
it. On one side the ditch hindered the cattle from 
getting at the newly-planted shoots to do them any 
injury, and on the other there were set up, as it were, 
ledstangar, railings, or also a dead fence, which some- 
what resembled a gardes-gard, similarly to prevent the 
cattle on that side also from approaching the young 
trees. It is commonly in the month of October or 
February that this work is carried out in England. At 
a place between Little Gaddesden and St. Albans there 
was a new hedge planted in the above-named way, but 
to hinder the cattle from injuring the young shoots, 
there were on the summit and along the bank set what 
I may call ledstanger, railings. 

Down below the shoots there was a deep ditch dug, 
partly for the same object, partly and principally to get 
earth in which the shoots could be planted. On the 
other side of the ditch opposite the hedge, close to the 
edge of the ditch, there was a dead fence erected to 
hinder the cattle and sheep from getting down into the 
ditch to bite off the newly-planted shoots. 

In another place there were, with the same object, 
erected hurdles exactly the same as are here used as folds 
on the arable, and have been before described (p. 262 
orig. 264 above). These were placed just at the edge of the 
earth-bank [T. I. p. 312] in which the shoots were 



3l6 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

planted, to hinder the cattle from climbing up on to 
the earth-bank. 

Obs. In England there is the advantage that nearly 
in every town and large village there is one or more 
nurseryman, Tragards-mastare, whose principal occu- 
pation is, to sow and plant the seeds of a number of 
different kinds of trees, and to keep ' tree-schools/ so 
that they can sell a number of all kinds of different young 
shoots for a reasonable price to one who requires them. 
When, then, a farmer, en Landtman, wishes to lay 
down, for example, a new hedge, he goes to such a 
nurseryman and buys of him as many 1,000 shoots as he 
requires, which he can at once plant out as a hedge 
without waiting from the time they are sown till they 
have grown so large that they can be planted out, which 
would be too longsome, for langsamt, because the 
hawthorn-berries lie, for the most part, two years in the 
earth before they come up. 

Sometimes a new hedge is made with a ditch on its 
outer side, as in the afore-named manner, sometimes 
also, without a ditch, when the mould to plant the shoots 
in is taken from both sides of the place where the hedge 
is going to stand. In planting the shoots, it is especially 
necessary that the soil should be arranged close into and 
around their roots. If the hedge is laid down without 
any ditch, a dead fence must first of all be erected on 
both sides of the planted shoots, to keep the cattle off 
them, till they are somewhat large. 

Huru en gammal hack fornyas, och en dod 
upresas, &c. 

How an old hedge is renewed, and a dead fence erected. 

It has been mentioned above several times that no 
other fences, stangsel, are here used around the arable 
fields, meadows, pastures, orchards, flower gardens, and 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 317 

kitchen gardens, &c, than [T. I. p. 313] hedges of all 
sorts of prickly trees, sometimes also of trees without 
thorns, and when these are somewhat old they are cut 
down that new scions may shoot up from the cut-off 
stubs. A dead fence is in the meantime erected for as 
long a time as the upshooting scions take to acquire a 
sufficient height, so that they can themselves fence off 
the cattle. Now, I have just above described how an 
entirely new hedge is used to be laid down in England, 
therefore I will here give in detail the latter, or how to 
renew an old hedge, and erect a so-called dead-fence, dod 
hack, &c. I will describe it in the manner in which this 
work is performed here in Hertfordshire, where it is 
commonly held that the folk understand this work best 
of all in the whole of England. 

When a new-planted hedge is nine years old, it is 
commonly cut down, partly that the owner may get fuel 
from it, both for himself and to sell to others, partly that 
he may get a new and better hedge from the upshooting 
new scions ; for when a hedge has stood for nine years, 
a part of the trees in it begin to grow old and to go off, 
so that it is no more so thick as before. In performing 
this job all the trees are cut down quite close to the 
ground, which do not grow in a straight line in the 
middle of the hedge where the dead fence is to be 
erected ; but a part of the trees which thus stand in the 
middle of the hedge, as many, namely, as one considers 
on the spot will be necessary, are left to stand till one 
has entirely cut down the others. 

After that, staves, stafrar, are taken from the leaf- 
trees which had stood in the hedge, the twigs, qvist- 
arna, cut off, and the staves made quite smooth. The 
length of every staff is made 4 feet 6 inches. The thick- 
ness is from J [T. I. p. 314] to 2 inches diameter, and 
sometimes more. These 4 feet 6 inch staves, are set all 



318 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

in a row, where the fence is to be, the one staff after the 
other, never two staves abreast, so that just 2 feet length 
is left between every staff, sometimes a little more, and 
sometimes a little less. These staves are driven a good 
4 inches, if not 6 inches down into the ground, and, that 
this may be done more easily, the carl has a little mallet 
with which he drives them down. Hereupon be it noted 
that, if any of the trees which grow along where the 
fence is to be erected, are found not to be particularly 
long and thick, they are cut off 4 feet above the ground. 
The remaining 4 feet stub, is made quite smooth from 
twigs, and left to stand to be used as a staff or ' hedge- 
pole,' stafver. The more one can get of these the better 
it is, because they, as root-fast trees, make the dead fence 
stand steady and fast. After that, the carl takes the 
longer trees left remaining in the hedge, cuts them more 
than half through, about 4 inches above the roots, and 
bends them so, gently and cautiously down along the 
hedge. This down-bending is begun at one end of the 
hedge thus : — Let the hedge, for example, go in a straight 
line from north to south. If the carl intends to begin to 
tress, at flata, the dead hedge at the south end, he cuts 
the tree standing there a little more than half through, 
4 inches or more above the ground, which cutting is done 
on the north side of the tree. After that he takes hold 
of the tree, bends it softly and carefully down towards 
the south ; and as the lower parts of these trees are thick, 
so that after they have been thus bent down they will 
not further admit of being bent somewhat serpentif or miter, 
if I [T. I. p. 315] may so call it (by which I mean when 
it is first on one side of the one staff and immediately 
after on the other side of the next), he causes the thick 
stem to lie close against one side of the staves, and that 
commonly on the twiggy side — of which more anon. Yet 
he regulates this according to the situation of the tree, on 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 319 

whichever side of the hedge it stands most ; but the 
upper ends of these trees thus half cut through near the 
roots, which admit of being bent, he bends right and left 
serpentif or miter about the staves, that is, if in this hedge 
which stands north and south he makes the narrow end of 
this tree to go on the east side of the one staff he causes 
it afterwards to go on the west side of the next staff, still 
he mostly arranges it so that the ends of these are turned 
to the twiggy side. I will at once describe what I un- 
derstand by the twiggy side, den qvistiga sidan. 
Now, as these turned-down and half cut through trees, 
are here to perform the same service as gardsel or 
gardsel-trador with us, they are commonly laid at the 
inclination, or in the same sloping manner as some of the 
gardesgards-trador, 'fence-trees' with us, viz., not 
horizontally but obliquely and sloping, yet so that the in- 
clination is nearer a horizontal than a perpendicular 
line. 

In this way the carl continues from the south end 
northwards, so that he successively bends the trees which 
follow in the hedge over those which have previously been 
bent down, and that nearly in the same way as we in 
Sweden make a sloping gardes-gard, only that he here 
leaves the larger ends, as said before, to stand on one 
side close to the staves, and bends the little end now to 
one side of the one staff, and then to the other side of the 
next staff, and so arranges that all the outer ends of these 
[T. I. p. 316] trees are left on one and the same side 
of the dead fence or gardes-gard, viz., in the fore- 
going example, if he has turned the end of the first 
down-bent tree to the east side of the fence, hacken, 
so he ought also as far as possible to turn all the other 
outermost ends of the down-bent trees towards that side 
also. The height of the hedge is equal to that of the 
staves, viz., 4 feet. When the tree is cut near the roots 



320 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

somewhat more than half through, especial care is taken 
that the cut or incision in the part of the tree which 
is to be bent down is made very long, so that rain water 
and other wet may be all the less able to damage it, as 
well as that it may so much the better be able to be 
bent ; but the stub which remains down in the ground, 
one does not trouble himself about how the end of that 
is cut. And as it is seldom that so many trees grow in 
the middle of the hedge, that they alone, when they are 
bent, will be sufficient to fill up the fence with, but 
there are openings all the same here and there, long sprays 
and stems, spratar och. stand, of hawthorn are taken, 
which are bent or laid in the hedge in the same way as 
the little ends of the former trees, viz., that they go 
somewhat in formam serpentinam horizontaliter, or, now on 
the right hand side of the one staff, and afterwards on 
the left of the next following, and so by turns always so 
that the outermost ends are ultimately turned to one 
and the same side of the hedge, as here, in the example 
given, to the east. They are especially particular, to 
in this way wreath or set in hawthorn or sloe down to 
the ground, to thereby hinder the swine from going 
through the hedge in their explorations, because both 
these trees with their long thorns usually deprive them 
of all pleasure in such a research. [T. I. p. 317.] But 
that this dead fence may have still more strength, they 
procure for themselves long sprays either of hazel, 
willow, blackberry-bushes, or some other tree of which 
they take two sticks of about the same length, which are 
twisted, or wreathed spirally about each other on the 
top of the fence over the others, always so that the ends 
of the staves, storarna, come to be wreathed in between 
those two sprays, and thus fastened. They begin with 
this, thus : — 

The large end of a spray is set on the one side of a staff 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 32 1 

en stor, and the large end of another spray on the other 
side of the same staff. Next, the sprays are bent across 
each other, so that the spray, whose large end was now 
for example, on the west side of a staff comes in the 
next place to lie on the east side of the next staff. So it is 
commonly done with the sprays at their large ends, where 
they are thick and stiff, but afterwards they are wreathed 
spirally, so that they had commonly got in one, if not 
two spirals between every staff. When these sprays are 
complete two new ones are taken, and it is continued in 
the same way along the top of the whole length of the 
gardes-gard. But hereupon be it noted, that if the 
trees a little more than half cut through near the roots 
and afterwards bent down, turn the root ends or the 
thicker ends, for example, towards the north, and the 
point or the smaller end towards the south, as they lie 
in the hedge, these spirally-wreathed sprays ought to 
turn the large ends, on the contrary, to the south and 
the little ends to the north, also the work of wreathing 
them is begun at the north end, because it is believed that 
the dead hedge is by this means steadier and bound 
faster, than if they are turned with the ends in the same 
direction as the large trees, which lie obliquely and sloping. 

In respect of this also [T. I. p. 318] care is taken 
that these spirally-wreathed sprays, all come to lie 
horizontally. 

In most cases the sprays were only wreathed once 
spiraliter between each staff so that one and the same spray 
by this arrangement always came to lie on the same side 
of the staves. It was also commonly arranged that the 
small end of these came eventually to be turned to the 
twiggy side, and if it at any time came to be turned 
out to the other side, it was always cut off. I have in 
this description often mentioned the twiggy side, den 
qvistiga sidan. Now, I will say what it is After the 



322 KALM S ENGLAND. 

dead hedge has thus been erected as has been described, all 
the twigs on one side, by preference on that which looks 
inward, are cut off, so that it is quite smooth and even, 
but on the outer sides of this dead hedge to which the 
carls had turned all the points of the so bent down and 
inset trees, the twigs are cut off in this way, that the 
twigs near the ground are allowed to go out 2 feet or 
2 feet 6 inches from the hedge, but are afterwards cut 
off shorter and shorter the higher they are up, so that 
the highest are scarcely 4 inches long. 

If one stands on the flat side, and looks over the 
hedge, and along it on the twiggy side, then it looks like 
a sloping earth wall. The reason why the twigs on the 
one side are left so long is that the young shoots and 
scions which come to run up just between these twigs 
may in their tender age be shielded from the approach 
of the cattle by these dry twigs, which are mostly 
hawthorn. 

In several places it was the practice that when they 
cut down an old hedge near the roots and erected a 
[T. I. p. 319] dead, in the manner just described, in 
the same place, they dug close alongside of the hedge 
on one side a little ditch of 1 foot deep, and the same 
breadth, which was done for two reasons. 

1. The mould which was taken out of the ditch was 
cast up on, and over the roots of the hedge, which is 
accounted a choice manure to force the cut-down hedge, 
both to shoot faster, and to form a larger number of shoots. 

2. The ditch on one side hindered the cattle from 
coming to the young shoots and injuring them. On 
the other side they were protected by the thorny twigs 
left remaining, but in many places, in short, in most 
places, this was neglected, nevertheless, it seemed to be 
a very wise provision. 

All the trees and twigs cut down in the hedge were 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 323 

collected together, cut into different lengths and bound 
up in bundles. The stems of the thicker trees, which 
were of an arm's thickness, more and less, were set out 
and bound separately together. The twigs and the 
smaller sticks were also bound together in bundles. 
Scarcely any twig was left, however small it was, which 
did not find its place with the others in the bundle, an 
unfailing sign that the folk here knew to set a right value 
on the wood, and to be careful of such a precious treasure. 
It is incredible, however, what use and profit a ' farmer ' 
and Landtman, in these woodless districts had from 
these hedges, which gave him not only sufficient fuel 
for his own requirements, but put him also in the position 
to sell a quantity of it to others who had not such them- 
selves. 

The larger a tree was, the dearer it was sold. I noted 
also that more prudent [T. I. p. 320] economists always 
carried the smallest bundles of twigs home for their 
own use, and were content with them ; but spared all 
the thicker timber to be sold to others. I even saw one 
who himself burned brackens the greatest part of the year, 
and sold all the wood which he yearly got from the 
hedges he cut down, which was a considerable quantity. 
Wherever we wandered about we saw large fagots and 
bundles of larger and smaller timbers, which they had 
bound together from the cut-down hedges, and left for a 
time near the hedges to dry, from whence they were either 
carried home, or sold for ready money. They were also 
sometimes left for poor folk, who in return did day-work 
for the farmer. 

When a hedge had thus been cut down and arranged, 
it commonly made such strong shoots, that in two or 
three years' time it could do service as a barrier, and be 
in a position to keep out the cattle. The dead fence 
was then taken away, and carried home for fuel. 



324 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

The cutting down of these living hedges and the 
erection of the dead hedges in their place was commonly 
effected in October and November, in the autumn, and in 
January, February and March, and at the beginning 
of April, in the spring, only with this difference that the 
young hedges were cut down in the autumn, but the old 
in the spring, which experienced economists had found 
to be best. 

In the hedges there stood here and there large trees, 
such as beeches, ashes, elms, limes, &c, which were an 
ornament around the arable fields ; but the large leaf- 
trees are said, however, to have the disadvantage that 
they by their dripping when rainy weather set in, as it 
were [T. I. p. 321] killed the hedges which stood under 
them, besides drawing considerable nourishment from 
the arable fields close beside them. 

The height of these dead fences was, as has been said, 
commonly 4 feet ; but it was also lower in some places, 
where they had only sheep and no large cattle. 

The reason why the trees were cut little more than 
half through, near the roots, and afterwards bent down, 
was in addition to what has been given above, partly that 
the dead hedge might be steadier, partly that young 
shoots should shoot up where a long-sloping incision was 
made in the tree so bent. 

The hedges here consisted of different trees, such as 
hawthorn, sloe, dogrose, blackberry-bushes, willow, ash, 
elm, maple, beech, holly, oak, etc., among which the 
hawthorn formed the most part, and next to that the 
sloe. This last was an arrant rogue at creeping under 
the earth with its roots, so that it was not long among 
the others in the hedge before it came creeping from them 
forward out into the fields. Here it so pulled the wool 
from the backs of the sheep, which sought for the fine 
grass under it, that large locks of wool remained every- 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 325 

where on its thorns. Jungstrom called it Ull-rjuf, 
' wool-stealer,' in consequence, for which name this bush 
here gave very good reasons. A little ditch drawn along- 
side the hedge could easily have stopped its bad habit of 
creeping far from the hedge. In cutting down a hedge, 
as soon as the trees which were not wanted for erecting 
a dead hedge were cut down to the ground, there was 
commonly dug up a narrow ditch close to the hedge, out 
of which the mould was cast up on the stubs which 
[T. I. p. 322] were covered with it that the sun might not 
injure the stubs, but that they might be forced to make 
stronger shoots, and strike out many scions. 

Helge-dagars firande i Angland. 

The celebration of Holy Days in England. 

England has nearly the same high-days as we in 
Sweden, and the Gospels and Epistles for them are also 
nearly the same ; but the Church ceremonies are ganska 
skilljaktige, very different. The sermon itself (in the 
English Church) which is all read from a paper writing, 
does not last over half-an-hour. The priest does not in- 
terpret in it the Gospel or Epistles, but he takes some 
Bible text which he explains and moralises over, and it 
sometimes happens that in the whole of his sermon no 
more Scripture Texts are cited and expounded than the 
single one he has taken for a Text. Sunday is esteemed 
outwardly in some things very holy, so that no ordinary 
work is carried on on this day. To dance, play cards, 
play on an instrument, to hum or sing dances on Sunday 
is esteemed a very great sin and scandal, and the man 
who was so indiscreet and transgressed in these respects, 
might at least in any town, soon place himself in great 
danger and risk. But to sit all day at the beer-shop, 
krogen, drink himself drunk, to visit mindre tuk- 
tiga hus, and pass the day with dissolute scum 



326 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

is not so rigorously guarded against. On the other holy 
days, Helgedagar, except Sunday, such as the second 
and third days in great high-feasts, stora hogtider, 
the Feast of the Annunciation, Midsummer-day, &c, a 
service it is true is observed in the church, but all work 
is carried on exactly the same as on any week day. In a 
word, they are observed here in the same way as Apostle 
days in Sweden. 

Angelska Qvinfolkens klader-dragt, maner, &c. 

English women's costumes, habits, &c. 

When the English women in the country are going 
out to pay their compliments to each other, they com- 
monly wear a red cloak, klades-kapa. They also wear 
their pattens, jarn-skor, under their ordinary shoes 
when they go out, to prevent the dirt on the roads and 
streets from soiling their ordinary shoes. All go laced, 
and use for everyday a sort of Manteau, made commonly 
of brownish Camlot. The same head-dress as in London. 
Here it is not unusual to see a farmer's or another small 
personage's wife clad on Sundays like a lady of ' quality ' 
at other places in the world, and her every-day attire .in 
proportion. ' Paniers,' Styf-Kjortlar, are seldom used 
in the country. When they go out they always wear 
straw hats, halm-hattar, which they have made them- 
selves from wheat-straw, and are pretty enough. On 
high days they have on ruffles, manchetter. One 
hardly ever sees a woman here trouble herself in the 
least about outdoor duties, such as tending, at vara 
med, in the arable and meadows, &c. The duty of the 
women in this district scarcely consists in anything else 
but preparing food, which they commonly do very well, 
though roast beef and Pudding forms nearly all an 
Englishman's eatables. 

Besides that, they wash and scour dishes and floors, 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 327 

etc., for about cleanliness they are very careful, and 
especially in these things, to wash clothes, and to hem 
one thing and another minutely. 

They never take the trouble to bake, because there is 
a baker in every parish or village, from whom they can 
always have new bread. Nearly the same can be said about 
brewing. Weaving and spinning is also in most houses 
a more than rare thing, because their many manufacturers 
save them from the necessity of such. For [T. I. p. 324] 
the rest, it belongs to the men to tend the cattle, milk 
the cows, and to perform all the work in the arable fields 
and meadows, and in the ' lodge ' and ■ lathe,' &c. I con- 
fess that I at first rubbed my eyes several times to make 
them clear, because I could not believe I saw aright, 
when I first came here, out in the country, and saw 
the farmers' houses full of young women, while the men, 
on the contrary, went out both morning and evening to 
where the cattle were, milk-pail in hand, sat down to milk, 
and afterwards carried the milk home. I had found, 
then, that every land has its customs. In short, when one 
enters a house and has seen the women cooking, washing 
floors, plates and dishes, darning a stocking or sewing a 
chemise, washing and starching linen clothes, he has, in 
fact, seen all their household economy and all that they 
do the whole of God's long day, year out and year in, 
when to these are added some visitors. Nearly all the 
evening occupations which our women in Sweden perform 
are neglected by them, but, instead, here they sit round 
the fire without attempting in the very least degree what 
we call hushalls-syslor, household duties. But they 
can never be deprived of the credit of being very hand- 
some and very lively in society. In pleasant conversa- 
tion, agreeable repartie, polite sallies, in a word, in all 
that the public calls belefvenhet, politesse and savoir 
vivre, they are never wanting. 



328 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

They are lucky in having turned the greater part of 
the burden of responsible management on to the men, so 
that it is very true what both Englishmen and others 
write, that England is a paradise for ladies and women. 
It is true that common servant-girls have to have some- 
what more work in them, halla nagot mera uti, but 
still this also is moderate, and seldom goes beyond what 
has been reckoned up above. But [T. I. p. 325] the 
mistresses and their daughters are in particular those 
who enjoy perfect freedom from work. 

To us in Sweden, where the wife, no less than the 
husband, is obliged in every way to bestir herself and 
keep her wits about her, fika OCh vara om sig, to 
help to win the bare necessaries of life, an English wife 
would not seem to be particularly well-suited. I have, 
however, with my own eyes, seen some proof of this, that 
when constrained by necessity to exert themselves, they 
have been as clever managers as anywhere in the world, 
for they are not wanting in sagacity to carry them through 
the most difficult cases. 

The 13th April, 1748. 

Angars godning. Manuring meadows. 

This work of manuring meadows is mostly performed 
here in the autumn, after they have carried the hay, 
when soot and other kinds of manure are spread over the 
inclosures, tackter, sown with Clover, St. Foin, and 
other kinds of hay. 

Hum mycket de fa efter en bushels utsade. 

How much they get in return for each bushel sown. 

Several farmers said here that two bushels of wheat 
are commonly sown out on an acre of land, acreland, 
and in return, when the field is well-managed and the 
year's growth is good, twenty-five bushels are reaped. At 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 329 

Ivinghoe it was related that they get ten bushels of barley, 
korn, for every bushel sown. 

At sa laga, det hoet blifver gront och 
valluktande. 

How to arrange that the hay may be green and fragrant. 

Of the many good kinds of hay here in England I have 
in particular seen two ; the one is quite green and as if it 
were newly mown, though it may be one or more years old ; 
the other has a brownish appearance, but smells incom- 
parably well, so that no more delightful scent could 
attach to hay. I asked that clever farmer, Mr. Williams, 
in what way both these kinds of hay were prepared. He 
answered [T. I. p. 325] that the hay retains its green 
colour if it is treated in the following manner : — As soon 
as it has been mown, and has lain a little time, it is 
turned over, in which way, if it is sunshine, it is continued 
the whole day, so that it is turned over nearly once in 
each hour ; because with hay there is the peculiarity, 
that if the sun gets to shine long on one side and dries it, 
it loses its green colour and becomes pale. This turning 
is continued until the hay is dry, when it is carried home 
and laid in the lathe, lada, or rather in the stack. An 
hay thus managed has a very fragrant scent, although 
not quite so strong as the following brownish sort, which 
is prepared thus : — After the hay has been mown it is 
turned as usual from time to time, and when it is nearly 
dry, but has still some moisture left in it, which however 
should necessarily be a certain degree, for which an 
exact knowledge is required, it is carried home, laid in 
the lathe, lada, but by preference in the stack, when 
from the still remaining moisture in it, it comes to have 
as it were a kind of sweating, which far from injuring the 
hay, or giving it any unpleasant taste or smell, causes it 
to have the loveliest and most delightful scent which can 



330 KALM S ENGLAND. 

ever be in any hay. Mr. Williams doubted, however, very 
much whether anyone, after a mere account of the pro- 
cess, would be in a position to do this, unless he were 
present when the hay was so prepared and got to learn 
to know then how far it ought to be dried before it is laid 
together to undergo this sweating. 

This is the hay which is so agreeable to cows and horses, 
that they nearly forsake everything else, when they can 
enjoy this. The farmers also consider this very whole- 
some [T. I. p. 327] and good for cows, because they 
become very thirsty and drink much when they have 
eaten it, and afterwards give an abundance of milk. 

Here I will now add, that all the farmers I talked 
with in this place, unanimously affirmed that it is far 
better to lay the hay in stacks made and thatched as 
above described (p. 211 orig. 210 above), than to lay it in 
lathes, lador. The reason they gave was, that after the 
stack has been well thatched, the hay can be kept far 
better in it, because the air has free access on all sides to 
weather and dry it, while on the other hand that which 
is arranged in lathes has not this advantage, but is in part, 
especially that which lies nearest the walls, musty and 
mouldy. Nor can the hay which is laid in lathes ever 
acquire the delightful fragrance, which well managed hay, 
laid in the stack, commonly has, although the kind of 
grass itself often does not seem to be so choice. 

Aske-tradets alder. The Ash tree's age. 

An ash which grew in a hedge, and was newly cut 
down, had at the large end 104 sap-rings, which gave its 
age in years. The diameter was here 22 inches. From 
the 14th to the 30th year the tree had made the thickest 
sap-rings, but the outermost were very thin. The length 
was 12 feet. This tree had not had freedom to grow in 
height, but after it had attained 6 feet in height, it had 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 331 

been cut off at the top, that it might strike out many 
shoots, which were cut off after they had grown to some 
thickness, and carried home for fuel, after which the stub 
was again left freedom to strike out others, which twigs 
again, after some time were cut off for the same object. 
This mode of providing fuel, I have seen very much used 
[T. I. p. 328] in the districts where I travelled in Eng- 
land. On the stub left remaining in the hedge there was 
a shoot left, which had run up from the roots, and could 
at some future time be used in the same way. 

Another ash had 92 sap-rings at the large end, which 
denoted the age. The diameter at that place was 19 
inches. Up to the 19th year it had made quite small 
sap-rings, but in the 19th year it had made one large 
enough, and in the 20th the largest of all. After that it 
had had, Sedan hade hon framgent hade, large sap- 
rings, until it reached 38 years, after which they began 
to be narrower and narrower. The length of this log 
was 19 feet 6 inches. At the little end there were 80 
sap-rings. The diameter was there 13 inches. It was 
cut and managed in the same way as the former one. 

Ek-tradets alder och vaxt. 

The Oak tree's age and growth. 

We afterwards came across a felled oak, which we 
also examined, to get to know its age. At the large end 
were 48 sap-rings. The diameter was 22 inches. After 
it had attained a height of 9 feet from the roots it had 
been cut off, that it might strike out many shoots, which 
could be used for fuel. It had considerably thick sap- 
rings. On one side of the hedge in which it had stood, 
was a road, on the other ploughed fields, only small trees 
with it in the hedge. The soil the. same as everywhere 
here at Little Gaddesden. At the little end the sap-rings 
could not be distinctly seen, for it was cut several times. 



332 KALM S ENGLAND. 

[T. I. p. 329.] Harfvarnas beskrifning, som har 
brukas. 

Description of the harrows which are used here. 

The harrows in use here are made in the same way 
as with us in Sweden. Their length is commonly 4 feet 
3 inches, breadth 3 feet 2 inches. Some consisted of 
five bars, tran, and some of four, with always five tines, 
tinnar, in each bar, tra. The distance between the 
tines was commonly 9 inches, the length of the tines 6 
or 7 inches. The breadth of each of their sides J inch. 
They were not fastened, fast haftade, as is commonly 
done with us by being thrust in from below, and then 
clinched on the top, nadas ofvantil, when the part 
which is thrust into the bar is narrower than that below, 
but they were here thrust through from above, when the 
upper end of them was beaten thin, bent ad unguium 
rectum, with a nail-hole in the same crookt and thin 
beaten part of the iron, through which a nail was knocked 
down into the harrow-bar, harf-traden, which held 
the tine, pinnan, fast. But as the hole for the tine or 
harrow-tine, harf-pinnan, was as large as the thickness 
of the tine, the tine was often shot up, and became loose, 
in this flint-full earth. 

Jordens tjocklek somligstads p& kritan. 

The thickness of the soil in some places on the chalk. 

In a thick wood of leaf-trees was a pit, where they had 
taken chalk, in which we measured the thickness of the 
soil, which we found to be 4 feet 3 inches. This earth 
which lay upon the chalk was of the same brick-coloured 
kind as is found everywhere about here. 

Such was the thickness at this place, but in other 
places it was sometimes more, sometimes less. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 333 

Aldren och vaxten p& Agrifolium. The age and 
growth of holly. 

In a newly felled hedge there lay among other trees 
a somewhat thick holly, Agrifolium Raj. Syn. 466, which 
at the large end had thirty sap-rings, which [T. I. p. 330] 
showed that it was thirty years old. The diameter was 
4J inches. 

The 14th April, 1748. 

Manfolkens syslor och plagsed har pa orten. 

Men's duties and habits in this place. 

Men have here to take thought for the heaviest part 
of the cares of husbandry. They have to do all the work 
in the arable fields, meadows, in the wood, the lodge, and 
the lathe, pa aker, ang, i skog, loga, lada. 

The women have also bishop'd the care of the cattle 
on to them, even to the extent that the carls commonly 
milk the cows, as has been said before. In short, all out- 
door work belongs to the men. They have to collect 
together the wherewithal to feed, nourish, and clothe 
both themselves and the women, for here the women do 
not get sore fingers by much spinning, spanad, or arm- 
ache or back-ache from weaving. It is the part of the 
Manufacturers to make up for this, and the men's purses 
are punished in this matter. The men consequently 
think it no more than reasonable that they should some- 
times take a little rest. [The Village Inn.] We staid 
here at the Inn, where the host kept ale and brandy for 
sale, and into which the men of this village very often 
came, to pass some hours over some Pint beers (pints of 
beer). There were seen, sometimes both before and after 
dinner, a number of labouring men and others killing 
time in this way. Still, the evenings after six o'clock 



334 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

were especially devoted to this, after the carls had finished 
their regular labour and day's-work. I often wondered 
how some of them could have their means of subsistence 
in such a way, the more so because ale and brandy were 
here very dear ; but most of all I wondered over this, that 
folk who could only provide food for themselves, their 
wives, and children, out of daily wages, dags-penning, 
could spend time and money in this way. It was, how- 
ever, not unusual [T. I. p. 331] to see many sit the whole 
day at the inn. But the custom, maner, of the country 
that friends and neighbours come together, sit and con- 
verse, the abundance of money in this country, the ease 
with which a man could in every case have his food, if 
only he was somewhat industrious, seem to have con- 
duced to this result. However, I more than seldom saw 
anyone imbibe so much that he became drunk from it. 

Ale, 61, was the drink that was most used here. 
Brandy was seldom asked for. It only occurred to me, 
a foreigner, how folk, who commonly are so self-seeking, 
fikande om sig, could spend often a great part of the 
day in this way. This manner of life was customary at 
all the places I travelled through in this country. It is 
not to be wondered at then, if a great many labourers 
and others, however large the daily wages and profits 
they can make, can, for all that, scarcely collect more 
than what goes from hand to mouth. 

Ttissilago pa akrar. Colts foot on arable fields. 

On the greater parts of the arable fields, which were 
somewhat damp, Tussilago vulg. [Coltsfoot, T. Farfara] 
grew in great abundance, and that mostly on the 
ploughed plots which had been sown the year before. 

Goken, the Cuckoo, I heard to-day the first time 
this year, though some said they had heard it a week 
before. 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 335 

Mullvads-hogar upkastade. Mole-hills cast up. 

I have often before said that in this place are found a 
very great number of moles. The earth and mole-hills 
which they had cast up on the meadows, the farmers 
caused to be spread out over the meadow, that they, in 
any case, should not originate any hillocks, tufvor, on 
them. 

[T. I. p. 332.] Bokars alder och vaxt. 

Beeches' age and growth. 

Below the house where we had our lodgings was a 
wood of high and thick beeches. Among them were 
some cut down, on two of which we counted the sap- 
rings, to see their age and growth, and to gain from that 
some idea of the fertility of the soil. One of the beeches 
which lay here had at the large end 162 sap-rings. The 
diameter there was 2 feet 10 inches. The length of this 
beech-stock was 20 feet. At the little end there were 142 
sap-rings, and the diameter was 2 feet 4 inches. Another 
beech in the same park had at the large end 168 sap-rings, 
or years old. The diameter at this end was 3 feet 5 
inches. The length was 18 feet 6 inches. At the little 
end there were 156 sap-rings, and the diameter was 2 feet 
1 inch. 

At this point I make only this remark : This wood or 
park consisted of high and thick beeches. The soil was 
here the same as is found everywhere about Little Gad- 
desden, viz., the often described brick-coloured earth, 
tegelfargade jorden, but the reason why these trees 
had not come to increase in their thickness in proportion 
to their age is, that those previously described had grown 
in hedges, where they had had open air on all sides, a 
long way between each tree, and the roots had the use of 
the neighbouring ploughed fields, &c. ; but these had 
stood crowded together where the air was prevented 



33^ KALM'S ENGLAND. 

from getting to them by those standing round. In that 
position they could only hasten to run up in height. 
Perhaps, also, it might somewhat have contributed to 
this, that the ground had always been overgrown with 
grass, which had not given the tree-roots so much 
nourishment as where they ran under the cultivated 
fields. 

[T. I. p. 333.] Hum frukt-tran planteras vid 
murar och deras nytta. 

How fruit trees are planted against walls and their use. 

Everywhere I have travelled here in England in the 
country as well as in and near London and other towns, 
I saw a particularly profitable custom with the planting 
of certain fruit trees, which consisted in this : — Around 
most of the gardens here in England there were built 
brick-walls of various heights. When anyone had a fruit 
tree which he wished to be able to bear either early or 
ripe fruit, the same was planted, if the wall ran from west 
to east, on the south side of, and close against the wall. 
Afterwards its branches, qyistar, were carefully spread 
out along the wall, on both sides of the tree, after which 
a little bit of cloth was taken and bent round the twig, 
qvisten. This bit of cloth was afterwards nailed fast 
to the wall, by which means the twig or branch of the 
tree came to be stretched out along the wall. According 
as the twig grew longer it was nailed fast to the wall with 
more laps in the aforenamed manner. They began in 
this way when the tree was little, and afterwards went 
on so continuously, according as the tree grew. No twig 
or branch got to grow on the outer side away from the 
wall, but the tree was obliged only to extend itself on 
both sides. By reason of the tree thus coming to stand 
right in the heat of the sun, it could not be otherwise 
than that its fruit should be very early ripe and very 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 337 

beautiful. The trees whose fruit otherwise could never 
be ripened in England ripened quickly in this way as 
well as if they had been indigenous in England. Apricots, 
Apricoser, Pistachios, Pistacier, Peaches, Persiker, 
in their manifold varieties, with other beautiful fruits, 
were managed in the same way. 

They were planted in the same manner against walls, 
or the walls of -houses, which in summer time looked very 
pretty in consequence, when a choice [T. I. p. 334] fruit 
tree often overclad the whole wall. No side of the garden- 
walls or of the house-walls, for the houses were here nearly 
always built of brick, was left bare and void of them, 
whether it was that which faced the south, east, west, or 
north ; for they chose out for those aspects such trees as 
either preferred the morning, noon, or evening sun, or 
loved to stand in the shade. Thus it is often seen that 
cherry-trees which bear Morels, Moreller, were spread 
out on the north side of the garden-walls or house-walls. 
In the same way were red and white currant bushes, 
Vinbars-buskar, planted on the last-named or north 
side. 

Halm-hattar. Straw-hats. 

I have mentioned before (p. 323 orig. 327 above) that 
the greater number of the English women in this district 
trouble themselves very little about such domestic duties 
as in other countries form a great part of the occupations 
of women, but that they had laid most of the burden of 
that on to the men. I saw, however, in some places some 
part of the women afford proof that they are not wanting 
in ability for various things, if only the custom of the 
country had not freed this sex from such. Here were 
several women who were very busy in making straw hats 
which they afterwards sent hither and thither to be sold. 
The straw which was used for this purpose was only 



338 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

wheat straw, nothing else. Of this, long straws were 
taken, which were cut off into pieces 9 inches long, which 
were bound into small bundles after the tubes had been 
first cleaned out. Such a straw as has been speckled 
black by the rain, ought on no account to be taken. To 
make the straw still whiter they did this: One of the 
bundles was dipped in water ; afterwards sulphur was laid 
in a round iron ladle, stdpslev,* which had no handle, 
[T. I. p. 335] and it was set fire to, after which this 
lighted sulphur, together with the stop-slev was set on 
the bottom of a can, pint-pot, or similar vessel of the 
same width above and below. Round about the sides of 
this vessel these straws, halm-stran, are set up, so that 
the sulphur is in the middle of the bottom. The pint-pot 
is covered over with a cloth, when the vapour and smoke 
from the sulphur makes the straw in these bundles much 
whiter than it naturally was before. When they wish to 
plait, flata, with it, such a bundle is first dipped in water, 
so that the straw may be softer, and not break off. The 
particular manner in which this plaiting is afterwards 
done cannot so clearly be described in words.f 

Anmarkningar vid Krita och Flinta. 

Notes on Chalk and Flint. 
It has often been mentioned before in this description 
of my travels, that the hills in the whole of this district 
in Hertfordshire, consisted only of chalk, af bara krita, 

* Stop-slev. In Ivinghoe village, Sept. 1886, sulphur about the size 
of a walnut is laid in a shallow circular iron pan, shaped like a scale-pan, 
nearly 6 inches diameter and about ^ inch deep. This is set on to live 
coals which are contained in a circular iron pan 6 inches diameter at top, and 
2 inches deep, narrowing towards the bottom. The whole apparatus is 
called the " Steam-pan," and is bodily put into a box or can with the straw 
round it, and covered over as described by Kalm. [J. L.J 

f Straw plaiting is still to be seen, as described, at every cottage between 
Hitchin and Tring. The women earn 2d. a day for all they can plait. [T. L.] 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 339 

and that the surface soil, dfversta sk&rpan, was full of 
flints, often in such multitudes that the ground, marken, 
could scarcely be seen for them. Here we noted that 
the most flints lay on the surface, but commonly the 
deeper they were in a chalk pit the less the number of 
fragments that occurred. I saw many chalk-pits, on 
whose sides there scarcely appeared a single flint, while 
notwithstanding that, the ploughed fields and the soil 
above were quite full of them. 

[Here omit 7J lines to bottom of page 335, and 
6£ lines on page 336, recording the superstition of Mr. 
Ellis and other farmers, that lumps of chalk exposed to 
the sun and rain hardened into flint.] I made the sug- 
gestion that the flint might lie in the middle of the lumps 
of chalk, and that no one had seen it before it came out 
on the field, when the air, rain and sun, reduced the 
chalk itself to a fine meal [which is clearly the true ex- 
planation of the appearance of angular flints ' in places 
where they knew that no flints had been before and 
which afterwards, when the chalk had lain some time 
were found full of flints.'] But they answered that then 
they would meet with a large number of flints in those 
chalk pits where the chalk is dug or hewn loose for ma- 
nuring the fields, but they had not found such, or only very 
few. It is not every kind of chalk that undergoes this 
change, but it must be a particular sort, because when 
chalk is carried on to the fields for manure the greatest 
part of it goes to pieces to a fine meal or mould after it 
has lain some time on the field in the open air ; but only 
certain pieces of it are left to lie and harden, without thus 
going to dust, but what kind of chalk this is I cannot say.* 



* There is no foundation whatever for this story of the farmers beyond 
that on clayey parts of the fields on to which they therefore carried chalk, 
flints afterwards appeared in the manner suggested above by Kalm. [J. L.] 

Z 2 



34© KALM S ENGLAND. 

It cannot be the harder kind of chalk which is here 
called Hurlock, because we observed near Ivinghoe that 
there occur scarcely any flint fragments where an abun- 
dance of the Hurlock lay on the fields [Omit 

nearly 2 lines] . . . Fields situated on the north side 
of a hill were commonly less full of flints than those on the 
south side [Omit 3J lines to bottom of p. 336, and 9 
lines on p. 337, where Kalm adverts to the possibility of 
flints being carried on to the fields with the chalk manure, 
and to the practice of picking flints off the fields and lay- 
ing them in heaps.] 

[T. I. p. 337.] When ordinary chalk comes to lie 
exposed to the weather or becomes wet, it sometimes 
hardens so that no one can write with it. Besides 
what has just been advanced, it seems to be tolerably 
clear that both the chalk and flints behaved so, for we 
found in some places on the fields large pieces of chalk, 
which were quite hard, and when we broke them to pieces, 
they consisted of chalk all through. Others of them had 
at the centre a flint the size of a pea, or of a bean, others 
as large as a hazel-nut, and others still larger ; but all 
that which was outside this flint was a hard and half- 
petrified chalk. This went by degrees, so that from a 
flint the size of a pea at the centre, and all the rest a 
hard chalk around it, it went to a flint the size of a closed 
fist, and still larger, in the middle, so that at last there 
was only an outer crust of this hard chalk of some J inch 
thick. . . . [Omit 2 lines.] We saw and collected 
several pieces in which we could plainly perceive, to all 
appearance, the whole process from a black fully developed 
flint at the centre to a loose chalk at the outer surface, 
and all grades of hardness between these two points, ripe 
flint and [T. I. p. 338] loose chalk. A great number of 
flints on the fields had a white chalk-crust, Krit-sk&rpa, 
round them. Several flints were entire and of the same 



LITTLE GADDESDEN. 34 1 

quality throughout. Sometimes flints were found of all 
kinds of curious shapes, which resembled goats'-horns, 
spigots, etc. In some pieces appeared traces of bivalve- 
shells, musselskal, especially of the kind called 
Pectinites. 

When a flint has lain a long time in the sun it ac- 
quires a white colour on the surface like a burnt flint, 
Kisel-sten, and in some places among the white it has 
a bluish colour. In chalk-pits there are often seen strata 
of an entirely different colour, viz., of tegel-fargade 
jordeneller svartmyllan 6fverst,the brick-coloured 
earth or soil on the top, which is a sign that these dis- 
tricts in former times stood under water ; for in deep 
chalk-pits, Krit-gropar, there sometimes occur two or 
more strata of such brick-coloured earth with several ells 
pure chalk above and between them.* 

The 15th April, 1748. 

In the morning we set out on the journey back from 
Little Gaddesden to Woodford, in Essex. 

The whole of the time we stayed at Little Gaddesdtn 
we got to learn a great deal more of English rural 
economy from the farmers than from Mr. Ellis, who was 
very jaloux and 'close' about the little he knew of the 
subject. When we first came to Little Gaddesden he 
had his four-wheel-drill-plough which stood out on the 
farm ; but directly afterwards it was locked up, so that I 
did not get to see it any more than when Mr. Ellis, with 
two carls, devoted a whole afternoon to sowing out with 
it about a pint of seed. When we took our leave, he 
gave me a leaf written full of various of his so-called 

* These latter earth beds are ' pipes ' in the chalk. The explanation of 
the flints on the surface, and their absence in the pits is that the latter are dug 
in the middle chalk which has very few flints, and that the hills are capped 
by upper chalk which has many. [J. L.] 



34 2 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

receipts. For example, ' How to prepare an excellent 
manure for arable fields.' ' How several [T. I. p. 339] 
cattle diseases may be cured,' &c. ; but he did not dis- 
close the method how all this is to be set going with so 
much advantage, but set forth only at what price he sold 
one and all of these Receipts. Most of them cost 100 
dollars (copper pieces) ; but then the purchaser was 
obliged to swear never to disclose the same to anyone 
else. It is a pity that the man had so short a memory 
that he himself forgot to practise these receipts on his 
own farm and land, for his arable fields and meadows did 
not look as if they answered to that which was promised 
in these surpassing receipts. He offered to make with 
me a tour through several counties in England of fourteen 
days' duration, to instruct me in English Rural Economy, 
and for all this inconvenience to him, he demanded no 
more than that I should only keep him a horse, pay his 
expenses, and find him in everything he required on this 
tour, together with twelve or fourteen guineas into the 
bargain. I thanked him for his attention, and asked him 
to defer this tour till another time. Nevertheless, I asked 
after all, that he who had travelled so much about in 
England in the places where the best English sheep and 
choicest English wool were found, and now also had three 
tracts on the management of sheep ready for the press, 
would let me know what districts and kinds of grass they 
are in particular, which the sheep eat and flourish so well 
upon ? and again what the plants are which are so bane- 
ful or injurious to sheep ? because this is one of the prin- 
ciples of the management of sheep. Mr. Ellis stood for 
a little time at this, and remained silent ; but in the end 
said that he had never given it a thought. 





GRAVESEND. 

[T. I. p. 475.] 

N the 30th June, 1748, we left 
London at 3 p.m. in the so- 
called ' Gravesend Tilt-boat ' 
for Gravesend, where we 
arrived at half-past seven in 
the evening. It is a great 
convenience for travellers to 
go by this boat. A single 
person only pays gd. for the 
passage down to Gravesend, or for the up voyage from 
Gravesend to London, but if he has anything more to 
convey, it is increased to a shilling for one person, or 
more according to what he may have to take with him. 

The moment the water at London Bridge is at its 
highest, and begins to turn to go back Vith the fall, this 
boat sets out, after giving notice for ah hour previously 
by ringing a little bell, that those who wish to accompany 
her shall go on board. In this boat there is a most com- 
fortable seat. A tilt or shelter is put up over it [T. I. 
p. 476] so that one has no fear of rain. If the wind is 

343 



344 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

with the boat, it goes all the faster for the tilt ; if it is 
against her, they avoid it as far as regards the tilt, by 
lowering the same. We now went on before down to 
Gravesend, there to wait for the ship, which was soon 
to follow, and in the interval we had the opportunity of 
seeing the country round Gravesend. 

The ist July. 

The country round Gravesend is at once the prettiest 
and the most delightful that can be imagined. It goes 
here in hills up and down, all divided into small ploughed 
fields, meadows, pastures, gardens, tragardar, &c, by 
quickset hedges, lefvande hackar. The hills are 
mostly of chalk, krita. The whole south side of the 
Thames consists of bare chalk, and here there is one 
chalk pit beside another, where chalk and flint are taken. 

Papaver erraticum, 428 [P. Phoeas, Red Poppy] was 
here among the wheat and beans the rankest weed. I 
have never seen it in such abundance as here in the arable 
fields, for its beautiful red flowers seemed absolutely to 
cover the fields, but for small pleasure or profit to the 
owners, because it both smothered the crop, and was, 
for its untold multitudes of seeds, next to impossible to 

eradicate. 

The 2nd July. 

Jord-vallar vid bradden af Thames. 

Earth- walls on the banks of the Thames. 

In the afternoon we walked along the earth-walls 
which were cast up on the banks or sides of the river 
Thames to prevent the water at high tide from overflow- 
ing the adjacent meadows on both sides of the river. It 
is well known that at this place there is ebb and flood, 
ebb och flod, fluxus et refluxus maris, so that the water 
in the Thames stream for six hours falls rapidly [T. I. p. 
477] outwards and goes lower, and for the next six hours 



GRAVESEND. 345 

the river rises and becomes very high, in some places 
often 12 feet and more perpendicularly higher than it 
was six hours before. The land which lies on both sides 
of the river is for the most part flat, flakt, level, slatt, 
and low, laglandt, so that if there were no obstacle, 
hinder, when the river is high, the water would go over 
all the land round about, for an English mile on both 
sides, and sometimes more. They * had, therefore, when 

* 'They.' ' De hade derfore.' Kalm, in using the word ' De,' has no 
Suspicion of the difficulty in proving who 'De' were. Camden, Dugdale, 
and others of the Old Antiquaries, regarded the embankments of the Thames 
as Roman work. There is one positive statement, to which Lambarde drew 
attention (Peramb. of Kent, written 1570, Pubd. 1576). It is in the Folio 
Vellum MS. Augustin\i\ Ecclesice Cantuar. Annates, Corpus Christi Coll., 
Cambridge, 301, 1. Fol. 96, bottom line. ' A° Mcclxxix. ,' after other entries, 
' Eodem anno inclusus erat primo mariscus de Plumstede per Abbatem de 
Lessnes mari,' the last word being at the top of Fol. 97. Again, on Fol. 103, 
line 6, 'Anno Mcclxxxxiij,' occurs the entry, 'Eodem anno inclusus -est 
mariscus de Plumstede.' The entries are in abbreviated Latin, and the 
Annates end at the year 13 16. I copied the extracts by the kindness 
of the Rev. S. S. Lewis, [Alas! I must now add 'the late' 1891], 
Fellow and Librarian, C.C.C. Cant., on May 20th, 1886. The words, 
'primo' and 'mari,' under the year 1279, are positive. The marshes 
referred to extend from Plumsted to Earith. The Manor of Plumsted was 
given by William the Conqueror to S. Augustin's Monastery, Canterbury 
(see ' Carta Willelmi Conqs. de Manerio de Plumstede,' in Thos. of Elmham, 
Hist. Monast. S. Augnstini Cantuar , Chron. and Memor., 1858, p. 350). The 
Lands of Lessness Abbey were given, on its foundation, by S. Augustin's 
Monast. to the Abbot of L. out of the Manor of Plumstede. Wm. Thorn, 
who had been a monk of S. Augustin's. and who wrote his 'Chronica' of 
Canterbury some fifty or sixty years after the events recorded, and whose 
Chronica was printed by Roger Twysden (Hist. Ang. Scriptores X., Lond. 
MDCLII., p. 1930, b.), tells us, Cap. XXVIL, that "In the year 1281 a 
final agreement was made " between the Abbots of S. Aug. and Lesnes con- 
cerning an advowson claimed by both. " At length these contentions were 
settled as follows : The Abbot of S. Aug. ceded, and gave up all right to the 
advowson" . . " and for this recognition the Abbott of Lesnes conceded 
for himself and his successors that they at their own expense after the year 
next to come ' intrabunt mariscum de Plumstede et Lesnes will inclose from 
the sea the marsh of Plumstede and Lesnes,' that is to say, the whole tract 
which lies towards the east, ' inter gutteram de Borstall, et novam Wallam, ' 



346 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

the water was low and it was ebb, cast up on the Thames 
banks high and strong earth-walls which prevent the 
water overflowing the country inside the walls, which is 
mostly bare meadow land and pastures. 

The breadth of these walls or banks down at their 
base was 4, 5, or 6 fathoms, the height above the plain 
ij fathoms, the width at the top about 1 fathom, some- 
times barely 4 to 6 feet, so that they on both sides 
diminished gradually in width from their base to their 
top. Outside, against the river at the base of the wall* 
pile-work, palverke, which they took from old ships, 
was driven down compactly together, everywhere one 
row thereof. But in some places were two rows of such 
pile-work, one a little within the other. Immediately 
within the piles were laid a large number of lumps of 
chalk,* together with large flints, to bind the wall against 

* " Tiers of piles driven close to each other, in rows about 18 inches 
apart, row from row, the foot of one tier being nearly even with the middle 
of the piles of the tier below, and the space between the tiers filled with 
chalk or stone, and these rooms, as they are called, succeeding each other, 
from the bottom or foot of the bank to its top." Wiggins' Embanking Lands 
from the Sea [p. 215, Ed. 1867], Weale's Series, 1852, i2mo. [J. L.] 

between the gutter of Borstall and the new wall which Johannes Renger 
made in Heyflete, which wall they will for one month following maintain, 
' contra mare,' against the sea at their own cost," &c, &c. It seems as though 
Joh. Renger had finished his portion of the wall necessary to complete the 
inning of this large tract of marsh before the Abbots had done quarrelling, and 
that the original inning took place in 1279 according to the Annates, and 
1281 according to Thorn. These marshes lay drowned again, through the 
breaches formed in 1522 (probably from the rotting of the wood of the 'water- 
gangs ' under the walls) for seventy-five years, or till 1606. Lambarde, 
writing in 1570, says : ' The Great Breach is not yet made up' (Peram Ed., 
1826, 8vo., p. 396). As many other breaches from the same cause occurred 
for two centuries or more up to the beginning of the 18th century on both 
sides of the Thames, it is probable that all of the Thames walls so breached 
within that period are of the same epoch. As far as I know there is no other 
record of the first making of a wall but this. [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 347 

the attacks of the water. In some places these walls 
were 3 good fathoms higher than the meadows, ploughed 
fields, and pastures, lying within and behind them ; and 
ij fathoms higher than the water at ordinary high tides 
in the river. Sometimes there was double and some- 
times treble pile-work outside the wall against the river. 
The rest of the wall itself was made of the earth which 
they had dug on the spot. Here and there [T. I. p. 478] 
was some opening under the walls to the meadows, 
through which the water could be made to go either to 
or from the meadows. These small water-gangs* vatten- 
gang, which on both sides were built in with boards 
had a sluice, damluka, which could be taken up and let 
fall again. These sluice gates were fastened with locks, that 
wanton people could not take them up, and lay the whole 
country near the river under water. The flat land which 
lay inside the earth walls was laid out either as meadows 
or pasture, or also in some places where it was a little 
higher, as ploughed fields. Here and there it was inter- 
sected with runnels and dikes to lead off the water, and 
drain the sour and low land. It was pleasant to go on 
this wall and see, that when the water in the river stood 
at its highest, the land and meadows, together with the 
ploughed fields immediately inside the wall, were much 
lower than the surface of the water in the river. It was 
also at high water a pleasure to see how great ships in 
the river were moving at a much higher level than the 



* Vattengang, ' Watergang ' is the word used in the old Ordinances. 
Thus, in the suit of Godfrey le Fauconer, re Romney Marsh, 43 Hen. III., 
1259, Defdts. plead " that distress taken for repair of those banks and 
Watergangs was justly made." (Dugdale Embanking and Draining, 1652, 
c. xi., p. 21, Ed. 1772.) So also in Crdina?ices of John de Lovetot (p. 24), 
1288 ; and, of the Thames, the Ords. of Henry de Apeldrefeld, 1290, respect- 
ing inter alia ' banks and watergangs'' (ib. p. 27) ; and many other Ordinances 
in Dugdale. Q. L.] 



34^ KALM'S ENGLAND. 

land itself, which at a little distance made a pretty ap- 
pearance. On the meadows inside the wall grew a 
beautiful grass. It sometimes happens that when there 
is an unusually high tide the water in some places breaks 
through these earth-walls, overflows the whole ' level/ 
falten, or plain around, drowns cattle and other animals 
which go on the meadows, sweeps away the hay, and 
beyond this, does much other damage. There are, there- 
fore, certain persons appointed, whose duty it is not only 
annually to examine whether the dam or earth-wall, 
dammen eller mullvallen, is in all places strong and 
properly maintained, and where it in any place needs 
repair, to cause that to be effected without delay, but 
they have also their assistants, who in short, daily walk 
along the wall, and look whether the water [T. I. p. 479] 
is beginning to damage the earth-wall in any place, so 
that the damage may be able to be prevented and cured 
in time. 

The sides of the walls were almost everywhere covered 
with qvickrot, Triticum, 105 [T. repens] Couch-grass, 
Quickens, Twitch, or Stroil, which grew here very luxu- 
riantly to 30, 36, or 42 inches high, and thick enough. 
In some places it was cut, in others left. Where it was 
cut, which was done by those who owned the meadows 
adjoining, it had begun to grow again very luxuriantly, 
and stood thick and green, so that this grass seems to be 
an excellent thing to fasten the sides of the earth-walls 
with, as I said before. No trees were planted on these 
walls except a few privets, Ligustrer, which had esta- 
blished themselves on the inner side. On top of the walls 
grew plenty of Gramen Murinum J. B. [Hordeum muri- 
num, wild barley, wall-barley], but it was now mostly 
withered away. If these earth-walls did not exist, the 
river Thames would always look like a very large lake 
when the water in the river flooded the whole tract. In 



GRAVESEND. 349 

one place and another a piece of land [called ' Salting ' 
or ' Saltings '] has grown up outside the wall, which, 
when it is large, is often taken in within the walls by this 
means. A new wall is built outside it, and the old one 
inside is torn down ; but this must be with the consent 
of those who have the direction of the walls.* 

Nyttan af Plint-sten. The use of Flints. 

The whole country at this border, mostly consists of 
bare chalk, in amongst which is found a great number of 
flint-stones, both large and small. In the Chalk pits, 
krit-groparna, these flint stones are collected together 
from the chalk, laid in great heaps, and sold to strangers, 
who on the voyage from London often take a large 
quantity of them in passing. Here, in Gravesend, the 
streets were paved entirely with flints. 

On the S.E. side, about an English mile from 
Gravesend, was a very ancient church, f which [T. I. 
p. 480] in short, was entirely built of bare flints, except 
that they had used Portland stone for the frames and 
arches around doors and windows,! and in some places § 
covered the tops of the walls with it. Some Portland 
stone was also here and there built into the walls. 

Tegel-branneri. The brick-kiln thus seems to have 

* The Commissioners of Sewers. [J. L.] 

f St. Peter and St. Paul's Church (Rectory), Milton Parish. [J. L.] 
% The tower has buttresses — nearly as much Portland stone as flint. At 
E. end P. S. predominates. Porch on S. side alternate regular courses. E. 
window, now perpendicular, 8 feet 6 inches wide — an insertion — has been 
originally 14 feet wide. There are two original two-light windows on N. 
side. Cruden gives {Hist, of Gravesend, p. 70) a view of one, and says 
there were six in 1843, and that the church was built between 1307 and 

1377. U.L.] 

§ Somligstads cannot refer to the stone battlements which then existed. 
Irregular patches of stone are still seen along the top of the church wall 
(Aug. 4th, 1887). The battlements are shown in the Frontispiece to Pocock's 
Hist, of Gravesend, 1797, which gives a view of Milton Church from the 
S. West. [J. L.] 



350 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

been little used in this country in ancient times, for 
in the whole of this church, from the very bottom at the 
ground to the top of the tower, not one single brick, 
tegel-sten, was seen. The roof of the church was of 
lead.* The wall around the churchyard was built of 
flints for at least 6 feet, and only on the top covered with 
brick, which was laid so that it resembled a span-roof, 
rost, or roof of a house or church, in order that the 
water might run off quickly. A little S.E. of this church 
was an old church,f et gammalt kloster, of which the 
walls only were now standing. It was also similarly 
built mostly of bare flint, only that the frames and arches 
of the doors and windows were of Portland stone. Great 
trees now grew in the midst of this church. 

§j? f&im& jcjjangje* ail tljing*! 
S& andrar tiden alt ! 

In the same way a church at Northfleet J (Northfleth) 
an English mile west of Gravesend in Kent, Chadwell 
church in Essex, and several other churches, were built 
from the ground up to the top of the tower of bare flint, 
except that the corners of the churches and towers 
together with the frames of the windows and doors were 
of Portland stone, and if there was any brick in these 
churches it could be very clearly seen that it had been 
inserted in later times to repair some dilapidation. 

When they built a haystack in any of the chalk-pits, 
and the stacks here mostly consisted of Sain Foin,$ 
they first laid at the bottom on the ground, one or two 
beds of thick flints, afterwards dry sticks thereupon 

* The old lead roof and the battlements were taken off in 1790, and the 
hideous new roof with dropping eaves erected. Pocock, Hist., 1797, pp. 134 
to 150. Cruden, Hist, of Gravesend, 1843. [J. L.] 

f St. Mary's, Denton, 13th century. [J. L.] 

% St. Botolph's Vicarage. [J. L.] 

§ Sainfoin. Kalm always always spells it St. Foin. [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 351 

[T. I. p. 481] and then on the top the hay or Sain Foin, 
which was thereby prevented from taking harm from the 
moisture from the ground. 

Near the chalk-pits several outhouse walls and garden 
walls were built entirely of flints, which were nearly 
always so placed in the wall, that after a large flint had 
been struck in half, the perfectly black and even, or 
fractured face was turned outwards ; but the round and 
white side, which before was the outer surface of the 
stone was set inwards in the wall. In many places flints 
were carried out on to the roads for their repair. 

The 3rd July, 1748. 
Akrar. Ploughed Fields. 

The whole country around Gravesend was like a chain 
of hills on whose sides the ploughed fields lay. 

They were middling large enclosures, tappor, mostly 
surrounded with a hawthorn hedge, or also sometimes 
with a fence of wattled twigs or small branches. I did 
not notice any ditches, diken, in the arable fields, and 
what is more, no water-furrows, vattu-farar. The 
reasons may be that there are here no winters which 
cause the water to accumulate, the sloping position of 
the fields, and the soil, jordmon, which does not seem 
to retain the water long. 

Wheat, Hvete ; Barley, Korn ; Oats, Hafre ; Peas, 
Arter ; and Tares, Vicise, were the plants which we 
found sown on those ploughed fields, which were not 
lying fallow, som ej l&go i trade. 

The soil was a clay of a very pale brick-colour blended 
with a fine sand. Some pieces of flint lay here and there ; 
no other stones were found either on the ploughed fields, 
or in the whole of this district. The soil was so loose 
that it could be ploughed in the greatest drought, when- 
ever they wished, without waiting for the moisture of the 



35 2 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

second ploughing, utan at vanta efter Snedmust. 

When the ground was ploughed up the earth fell to pieces 
tolerably small, and was still further crushed to pieces 
with a large and heavy oak-roller, of 6 feet 6 inches long, 
and 18 inches or 2 feet diameter, and was harrowed, 
harfvades, still smaller, first with a large harrow, and 
afterwards with two smaller harrows, harfvor. 

After this it was rolled [T. I. p. 482] again so that 
the earth on the ploughed fields, trade S-&krarna, 
lay now as fine and loose as a fine mould on a bed in 
a newly sown kitchen-garden. There were no aker- 
renar, ' acre-reins,'* i.e., strips left unploughed, except 
only an ells-breadth close to the hedges. The ploughed 
fields did not lie in teg-skifte, or 'lands,' originally 
exchangeable strips,^ but entirely in severalty, ensta- 
kade. The same was the case with the meadows and 
pastures, each of which was separate from its neigh- 
bours. 

Hvetet. The crop that was mostly sown here was 
wheat, which by itself made three or four times as much 
as barley and oats together. I saw no rye here. 

Among the crops were found a great many weeds, 
among which Papaver, 428 [P. Rheas] Cucubalus, 360, 
[Silene inflata, Bladder Campion] and Ranunculus, 468, 
[R. bulbosus] were the most plentiful. 

The luxuriance of the Wheat, the length of the straw, 
and of the ear, and the number of grains in each ear 

* Reins. Studies in Nidderdale, 1872, 8vo. (p. 60). " In N. ^Reean is 
the strip that was formerly left unploughed around a ploughed field." For 
other " Reins," id. p. 61. [J. L.] 

f For the land-division in the common fields, see Col. A. H. Ouvry's 
iransl. from the German of E. Nasse, " Agricultural Community of the 
Middle Ages," 1871, 8vo. ; "Primitive Property," the Eng. transl of 
Laveleye, 1878, 8vo. ; and "The English Village Community," F. Seebohm, 
1883, 8vo.; also "Studies in Nidderdale," 1872, 8vo. viii. "The 
Reins." [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 353 

were nowhere greater than in well-cultivated fields here 
in Sweden. The same can also be said about the Barley. 

Artland. Pease-land is found in many places. The Peas 
were sown in rows. The distance between two rows was 
sometimes 18 inches, sometimes 21 inches, sometimes 2 ft. 

In the same manner, beans were also sown in rows. 
This was done partly because the weeds, which both 
smother and draw food from the peas, could then more 
easily be cleared away between the rows with a hoe, hacka ; 
partly because one could then conveniently go and pluck 
the peas without trampling them down ; for it is to be 
remarked that the Englishmen are very much given to 
eating green peas in the summer ; besides that, those who 
live near London, or have the opportunity of sending 
green peas in the shell thither, sow a great quantity of 
peas for that purpose only, that they may turn an honest 
penny by selling them. 

They had here cleaned away the weeds between the 
rows with a hoe, and drawn the loose mould up against 
the roots and stalks of the pease plants. The peas grow 
all the better for the soil being so friable and loose. 
No cut sticks, twigs, or anything else, were laid on the 
ground for the peas to creep upon and cling to, but they 
lay stretched out upon the bare earth. 

[T. I. p. 483.] Here and there were hung up dead 
crows, Krakor, of that sort which in the island are called 
Rooks, Rokor [Corvus frugilegus] thereby to strike terror 
into those of their relations who are left behind, more 
especially because this kind of bird is in England the 
greatest pest for the pease fields.* 

* Montagu says Rooks are "content with feeding on the insect tribe, 
particularly what is called the grub -worm, which is the larva of the chaffer 
[? cockchafer]. But in rendering the husbandman this piece of service, it 
pays itself by taking some of his corn also." {Ornith. Dict.> 1802, 
8vo. [J. L.] 

2A 



354 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Sain Foin was the kind of hay with which they here 
mostly fed their horses, who eat it very willingly. It was 
given to them either whole with all the grasses and plants 
which were among it, or cut up very small, like fine 
chopped straw, and afterwards laid in the crib for the 
horses. 

The qth July, 1748. 

Tistels Utrotande. The eradication of Thistles. 

Here we found that the farmers were more thoughtful 
than in Sweden ; for in the last named place they allow 
the thistles, Tistlarna, to stand and ripen, when the 
wind afterwards carries about their fine seed on to all the 
near and distant fields, orchards, etc. Yes, who has not 
sometimes found them so thoughtless that when they 
cut rye or barley they cut away the crop round about the 
thistle but leave it standing,* as though they were afraid 
that it would otherwise have no chance of sufficiently 
propagating itself! Here, in England, the farmers had 
entirely different ways of thinking and acting. We saw 
large tracts of ploughed fields, meadows or pastures where 
Onopordum, 653 [O. Acanthium, the Cotton Thistle'] and 
other kinds of thistle which grew thereon had been mown 
with the scythe before they had well begun to expand 
their flowers, and left to lie and wither on the plain. 

Bohvete. Buckwheat was sown in one and another 
of the enclosed arable fields. 

The $th July, 1748. 
Godning. Manuring. 

In one place and another the manure, godselen, was 
carried out and laid in great heaps on the ploughed fields, 
about 2 or 3 fathoms between two heaps. The manure 
consisted mostly of pieces of straw and such like stuff as 

* " And lingering thistles the rough fields deformed." Gcorgics. Bk. I, 
1. 151, origk— '173, Tr. J. Mason, 1801. [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 3$ 5 

is spread under the cattle in the farm yard. It lay still 
unspread. The field was [T. I. p. 484] quite fine- 
ploughed. In other places they had already carried out 
the manure on to the ploughed fields, spread it out, and 
ploughed it in. We afterwards remarked that these 
lands now manured were made into Turnip land, for on the 
21st July following they were sown with Turnip seed, after 
the manure had previously been spread out, ploughed in, 
the land rolled, and the mould worked fine. 

Vicia Sativa. Tares. Several places round Gravesend 
were sown with Vicia Sativa Vulgaris, semine nigro, C.B. 
which stood thick, luxuriant, and very beautiful. Its 
length was commonly 2 feet to 2 feet 3 inches. In some 
places a part of this was already cut and carried away for 
food for the farm-horses. It seems to be a plant which 
it is worth while to sow and cultivate. 

Fceniculum Vulgare Germanicum, C.B. [Fennel], grew 
as well around London as here about Gravesend, and also 
in Essex, on the hills and chalk slopes. 
Bransle. Fuel. 

The fuel which they mostly used here in Gravesend 
was Coal, Sten-kol, which they could easily obtain from 
the Colliers, which daily passed close by the town when 
bound for London. 

The Farmers, Farmarne, who dwelt in the country 
round Gravesend, and also on the other side of Essex, 
availed themselves most of such timber, verke, as they 
obtained annually when they cut down an old hedge and 
laid down a new, as before described (T. I. p. 319, orig.). 
I saw great heaps of such sticks and timber lying by the 
farmers' houses without reckoning what they sold, so it 
is worth while to have hedges. 

In Essex I saw that poor people even collected a 
quantity of Genista spinosa vulgaris, Raj. Syn. 475 [Ulex 
Europseus, Furze~] which they used instead of other wood. 




ssra 

lorra America, 

Academiens 5efaUTTitt0/ 

Publici foflnafc/ 
§6rratta& 

PEHR KALM, 

Oeconomis Profefibrt Abo, fcmrt &t>amotaf 

Tom* II 

STOCKHOLM, 
Stpcft pS LARS SALVD foftnai)/ i7r£ 



ESSEX OPPOSITE GRAVESEND. 

[T. II. p. i.] The year 1748. 
The 6th July. 

In the morning, in company with the then Pastor of 
the Swedish Congregation in London, Master Tobias 
Bidrck, and an English gentleman, I crossed over the 
river Thames to Essex, to see the country there. Directly 
we were across the river there was about an English 
mile of quite lowland to walk over before we came up to 
where it began to be hilly. 

This low-lying land has, in former times, been part of 
the river Thames, but is now, through the earth-walls 
and banks which are cast up on the banks of the river, 
separated from the same, and turned to account, and 
divided into arable fields, meadows, and pastures. 

When it is High Water in the river, which happens 
twice in the twenty-four hours, the surface of the water 
commonly stands much higher than these lowland plains, 
so that if the aforesaid earth-walls did not exist, the water 
would then overflow the whole of them, and cause these 
great plains to resemble a vast lake. 

The whole of this low-lying land was [T. II. p. 2] 

divided into different portions by deep ditches about 

a fathom wide, which was done to lead off the water and 

drain the land. Besides that, these dikes here performed 

357 



35$ KALM'S ENGLAND. 

the same service as hedges or fences to hinder the cattle 
from coming out of the pasture-lands into the ploughed 
fields and meadows. 

In most places these ditches were full-grown with 
Reeds, Arundo Vulgaris Palustris, C. B., which the cattle 
bit off as far as they could reach. 

Barley was most properly sown on these lowland 
arable fields, and now stood very beautiful. The soil 
was clay, Jordmon var lera. A part of these arable 
fields was lying fallow. 

They were now very busily engaged in mowing hay 
on the places which were laid down as meadows or 
grassland. 

Godning. Manuring. 

We found here in Essex, as well as all around 
Gravesend in Kent, that the cattle's dung was carried 
out and laid either by some ploughed field or some 
meadow where it was thrown together in great quad- 
rangular heaps, yet not entirely by itself, but mixed in 
alternate layers with turf, thus to lie and ferment into a 
compact mass before it came to be used on the arable 
fields, meadows, or gardens. 

At home at the farms we saw both in Essex and Kent 
the manure collected and treated in the same way as we 
have described before at Little Gaddesden (T. I. p. 251. 
et seq. orig.) 

Krita. Chalk. 

Here and there on this side in Essex are also chalk 
hills of the same kind and shape as in Kent. We saw in 
one and another place that the chalk was carried out on 
to the fields, where it lay partly in, and partly spread out 
over, the ploughed portions of land to manure them with. 

Hus. Houses. 
The husbandmen's houses, Bdndernas hus, here in 



ESSEX OPPOSITE GRAVESEND. 359 

Essex, were built partly of bare bricks, tegel, partly 
with cross-beams, Korss-verke, and bricks between, 
and partly they were of cross-beams with boards nailed 
over them, partly of cross-beams with laths thereon, 
which were plastered and daubed over with clay and 
lime. These last were only those which were inhabited 
by peasants, torpare, and other poor labouring people. 

The houses of the farmers, Parmernas eller 
Bondernas, themselves were so well built that they 
might well be taken for beautiful gentlemen's houses, 
Herregardar. 

Taken. The Roofs were partly covered with tiles, 
partly with straw. 

Uthusen. The outhouses, such as lada,* the lathe, 
loga,f the lodge, &c, also the poor people's stugor,J 
cottages, were commonly thatched with straw, tackte 
med halm, in the manner before described at Little 
Gaddesden (T. I. p. 202 orig.). This straw-thatch was 
here made very high and very steep, so that the rain and 
wet could not stand thereupon, but ran quickly off, for 
which reason the thatch rotted less, and could conse- 
quently stand many more years than a flatter thatch. 
They were made also thick enough, viz., sometimes 
1 foot and sometimes 18 inches thickness. The walls 
of some of the lathes were also of flint. 

In some places they were now very busily engaged in 
thatching. 

Rag. Rye was in Kent scarce enough, so that there 
were few places where any parcels of land appeared to 



* Laith, Lathe, shed, O.N. Hlatha, Swed, Lada, Dan, Lade, a barn. 

Gloss, to Studies in Nidderdale. [J. L.] 

f Lodge. In Sussex, an open shed in a farmyard. [J. L.] 

% Stuge, ' stuggor hvari folket-bodde,' ■ cottages in which the 

people lived.' [J. L.] 



360 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

be sown therewith, but in Essex on this border were 
nearly as many rye as wheat fields. It was now mostly 
fully ripe, and the straw began to be pale enough, while, 
on the other hand, the wheat which grew beside it was 
only just beginning to fill the ears or to set seed into 
grain, at matas eller satta karna til korn, and was 
quite green. 

Kyrkan. The church [West Tilbury], which lies 
in Essex on a high bank exactly opposite Gravesend, 
seemed very old, and was almost entirely built of Portland 
Stone , which has been described above (T. I. p. 371 
orig.) 

[T. II. p. 4.] Sain Foin. On the hills lay several 
meadows which were grown only with Sain Foin, which 
was now cut, and lay in great cocks. 

Hostackar. Haystacks. 

The hay at the farms was also here set in such stacks 
as were before described at Little Gaddesden (T. I. p. 
211 orig.), and were in shape like barns or houses. In 
the same way the hay is cut therefrom with a knife 
specially made for the purpose. 

Vattu-hoar. Water-troughs. 

At nearly all the farms, as in Kent, so here in Essex, 
they had water-troughs either to give horses the water 
out of, or also to keep the water in which they would use 
for cooking, which troughs were made partly of Portland 
stone, partly also of lead. The water kept very fresh 
therein. 

Those of lead were commonly covered outside with 
boards, because the soft lead otherwise bent outwards or 
inwards, if anyone happened to strike against it. 

Handskara. For cutting Rye and Wheat on this 
tract in Essex they do not use a Scythe, as at most places 



ESSEX OPPOSITE GRAVESEND. 36 1 

in Sweden, but small hand-shears ; in cutting Barley and 
oats, however, the Scythe, Lja,* was used. 

The iron of the hand-shears which they had, was 
crooked as in ours, but only about half as wide, so that 
it might so much the easier be able to be stuck in among 
the crop. On the under side they were not sharpened 
evenly along the edge, but they had small teeth filed with 
a fine file quite close together and running obliquely 
across the edge of the shears. There is no doubt that 
the straw must come off much faster, as well as remain 
steady when they are cutting it. 

On the upper side it was ground quite even at the 
edge. 

[T. II. p. 5.] Lia. The Scythe that was used here 
to mow grass with was very large and broad in the blade 
because it could not otherwise so easily overcome the 
resistance of the thick grass-growth which there is on a 
great part of the English meadows. 

We measured a scythe whose blade was 3 feet 8 inches 
long, and 2^ inches wide. In the evening we returned to 
Gravesend. 

[T. II. p. 23.] Essex, midt mot Gravesend. 
The U July, 1748. 

In the morning we crossed the river to Essex to see 
what there was to be seen. 

Akrar. On the lowland places, near the river 
Thames, some of the arable fields were now lying fallow. 
They were ploughed quite flat, but full of water-furrows 
lengthwise, about 10 feet between two furrows. The soil 
was a grey clay, Jordmon var en gra lera. Some 
small Pebblestones appeared here and there. In some 

* The large scythe used in Yorkshire and the north is still called the 
«lea.» [J.L.] 



3^2 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

places were large plots sown with Beans, which seemed 
to thrive here better than in any place I saw in 
England. They were sown with open hand, and not 
in rows. 

In several places was sown Wheat, which was standing 
beautiful. The ploughed fields were there arranged in 
small ' ryggs,'* ryggar, or ridges, 4 feet wide each, the 
ryggs low enough, no reins out on the ploughed plots. 
But of all crops, barley, gumrik [Hordeum Hexastichum, 
Linn. ' Kegle Korn,' Lilja, Shanes Flora, 1869, I. 46], 
was here the most plentiful, and now stood beautiful and 
flourishing ; the stalk's length 2 feet 6 inches to 3 feet ; 
two or more plants from one root, in the greater number 
of ears twenty-seven opposite couples of grains. The 
ploughed fields lay in Broad-land, about 20 feet between 
the water- furrows. 

All these arable fields, meadows, and pastures were 
separated from each other by dikes, diken, so that here 
also each farmer had his own land separated from his 
neighbour's, [T. II. p. 24] that he was able to look after 
and keep it as he best would and could. 

Hafre. Oats. 

We saw at several places in Essex large arable fields 
which were entirely sown with white oats, hvit hafre. 
Of other kinds of oats we found none. 

The ploughed fields at this edge of the county were 
richer in soil, svartmylla,f than around Gravesend in 
Kent. The sub-soil, jordmon, was brick-coloured. Very 
many small Pebble-stones, and other small fragments of flint, 
lay on a great part of the arable fields in Essex. On some, 

* Ryggs. " Corn riggs are bonnie." — Burns. [J. L.] 

f ' Svarimyllan, eller den jorden, som pa akrarna lag ofverst.' 

(T. I. p. 204.) 'The earth which lay highest on the fields,' the top soil ; lit. 

black earth, fj. L.] 



ESSEX OPPOSITE GRAVESEND. 363 

however, there was very little thereof. The principal 
reason why, in Essex as well as in Kent, they sow a large 
quantity of oats is that they fodder horses therewith. 

G-ardar : Hus. Farms : Houses. 

While we were walking about in Essex to-day we got 
to see a great many Farm houses, Farmers g&rdar, which 
here had the same appearance as in the other places in 
England where we had been, viz., that they resembled 
gentlemen's houses more than farmers' houses, at de 
liknade Herreg&rdar mera an bondgardar. The 
houses which the farmers themselves dwelt in were 
mostly of brick, tegel, commonly two stories high, 
roofed mostly with tiles, yet there were also a great 
many that were content with thatch, which is here made 
steep and thick. 

The Day-labourers, Dagsverks-karlar, who mostly 
are the same as Torpare with us in Sweden, had, in 
some places, houses whose walls consisted of cross beams 
with oak boards nailed on the outside. 

Brick houses were on the outside washed with lime, 
and white. Close to the farm-house was always the lodge 
and the barn, Logen och Ladan, which were commonly 
made in the same way as in Upland in Sweden [T. II. 
p. 25], viz., all under one roof, the lodge in the middle, 
and lathes on both sides, without any walls or divisions 
between them. Both the lathes were without floor, golf; 
but the lodge had a floor of boards to thrash upon, which 
floor was mostly laid on the bare ground. The lodge had 
large doors on both sides, that they could on one side 
drive in with a whole load of corn and unload in the lodge, 
and afterwards drive out on the other side. The whole 
barn, both the lodge and the lathes, had walls of cross- 
beams with oak boards nailed horizontally on the outside, 
and a high and steep thatch-roof covered with straw i foot 



364 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

to 18 inches thick. Beside the lodge, or also sometimes 
in front of it, they had a little S keeling or shelter, skjul,* 
which stood on posts, with straw-thatch over it, at times 
with walls of flakes or wattles,f made of interwoven thin 
boughs, in which skeeling they kept their ploughs and other 
agricultural implements. Commonly also they had a 
similar skeeling for their wagons and conveyances. Against 
and up the cottage walls were often planted vines which 
covered the whole wall. 

No hay -lathes, holador, were used either at the farm 
or out in the meadows, but the hay was all stacked. 

Krita. Those who lived here told us, that here and 
there on the banks of the Thames in Essex are Chalk 
pits I where they get chalk, but that this chalk is not so 
good as that which is dug in Kent. We saw that in some 
places they carried out the chalk on to the fallow fields, 
pa trades-akrarna, which mostly here lay on the hill, 
and that they shot the chalk there in heaps, where it 
was yet either unspread or also already outspread, and 
partly even ploughed in. [T. II. p. 26.] I asked if they 
used much here to manure the fields with, and how much 
use it was ? They answered that they used it enough for 
manuring the fields, that it is especially good on cold 
ground, that when they have once manured a field with 
it seven and more years may pass before they manure it 
anew ; that they had found it many times better first to 
burn the chalk to lime and then to carry the lime itself 

* 'Skeeling. The bay of a barn. The inner part of a house or barn 
where the slope of the roof comes.' Cooper Suss. Gloss. 2 Ed., 1853, p. 75. 
Shilling. ' A place called a S., which is what they lay turf up in.' 
Chichester Smugglers, 7th Ed., 1749, p. 14. 'A Skilling or outhouse 
adjoining to the house, wherein lumber and fuel was kept.' lb. p. 41. 

[J- L-] 
f Flakes. Tall wattles, in Sussex called Flakes, still manufactured 
1886, in Clapham Woods. [J. L.] 

\ Chalk-pits, e.g, Purfleet and Grays. [J. L.] 



ESSEX OPPOSITE GRAVESEND. 365 

out on to the fields, but that this is much more costly. 
We saw here and there on the ploughed fields which 
lay on the low-lying plain near the Thames, that they 
had been manured with chalk. 

Rag. Rye. 

We noticed in the course of the day several large rye- 
fields in Essex, which were now standing very luxuriant. 
I asked the people if they were in the habit of baking 
bread of this crop, or why they sow it ? They answered 
that no others but poor people use it for bread ; but the 
principal reason - why they sow it is that they carry it to 
London where they sell it to merchants, who ship great 
quantities of it abroad, to be there sold. 

The soil here in Essex, which on this edge of the 
county is very dry, sandy enough, and full of * Pebblestone,' 
seems almost to be more suitable for rye than for wheat. 
On the sandy fields the rye stalks were 4 feet long ; the 
length of most ears 4 to 5 inches. 

The beautiful and luxuriant rye was all sown in 20 
feet wide Broadland. 

Trappor. The steps which we availed ourselves of, 
to mount our horses, and which have been described 
before (T. I. p. 297 orig.) were here at almost all the 
farms. [T. II. p. 27.] They had also similar ones in Kent 
almost everywhere. The women had in them the greatest 
convenience for mounting their horses. 

Gddsel-stackar. Manure-heaps. 
In the same way as has been before mentioned (T. I. 
pp. 251, 252 orig.) about manure, that it is laid in heaps to 
rot, we also saw to-day near every farmer's house, as well 
as often out by the fields, that the manure which is col- 
lected in the farmyard, was cast together in great four- 
cornered heaps to ferment, or rot through into a compact 



366 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Commonly, and for the most part, it was laid alter- 
nately with cattle-dung and turf or mould, so that when 
they had laid a bed of turf or mould below, a bed 
of fresh cattle-dung was laid thereupon, which for the 
greatest part was mere straw-litter, halm-byssie,* and 
so by turns turf and dung. 

Very often these manure heaps lay along the margin 
of some arable field to be so much nearer to hand 
afterwards, for it was very seldom laid on the ploughed 
fields themselves, but mostly close beside them ; whereas 
it would seem to have been more profitable to have 
spread it on a piece of fallow field so that it might be 
once for all exposed to the open air ; because the places 
which the manure was laid upon would be manured by 
the liquid which had run down therefrom. We measured 
such a manure heap arranged beside a field and found it 
to be 102 feet long, 6 feet broad, and only 3 feet high, 
formed alternately of turf and dung. 

Genista Spinosa. Raj. Syn. 475. [Ulex Europseus] 
Furze grew here on the sand heaths, sandhedar, in 
astonishing abundance, so that it covered over nearly the 
whole [T. II. p. 28] sand heath. The highest bushes 
were 4 feet high. It lay here in many places cut 
down, and in great heaps. At nearly every farm, g&rd, 
especially at the poorer ones, were large heaps thereof, 
which they used instead of other wood as fuel. 

Hagnad om akrar. Hedges around the ploughed fields. 

The whole country at this side was, in the same 
manner as at the other places where I sojourned in Eng- 
land, divided into arable fields, meadows, pastures, com- 
mons, &c, each of which was mostly fenced round with 
a hedge of hawthorn, in which several other leaf-trees 

* Byssie. Mod. Swed. Boss, Litter. [J. L.] 



ESSEX OPPOSITE GRAVESEND. 367 

also took up their abode, as elm, oak, ash, sloe, black- 
berry bushes, Aim, Ek, Ask, Slan, Biorn-bars- 
buskar, privet, and others ; yet had the elm at all places 
in England * the pre-eminence over other trees excepting 
the hawthorn, of which the hedges were. 

We saw here, in one place and another, hedges around 
some sides of fields which consisted entirely of elm. We 
also saw here and there some oak, which in Kent, around 
Gravesend, is seldom to be seen. Neither Beech, Bok, nor 
Hornbeam, Afvenbok {Carpinus), were seen here, nor 
have I seen any of them in Kent ; both of them, however, 
grew in abundance in Hertfordshire, 

In some places only had they any wattle-fencing, 
gardes-gard af spratar ihop vriden, such as is de- 
scribed on p. 14 T. II. orig. Moreover, the hedges were 
in many places poor enough hereabouts, so that they 
would not be able to stand against such outrageous cattle, 
b&ngstyriga Kreatur, as we have in Sweden. But 
in the places where the hedges were in their proper state 
they could always prevent the most turbulent ox [T. II. 
p. 29] or horse from entering the arable fields. In 
many places they could well have such fragile fences, 
because there is on the pasture-lands, for the most 
part, such an abundance of good and rich bait that the 
cattle need not go to seek better. 

Besides that, Swine are mostly fed at home at the farm, 
and seldom go far from it. Hence it happens that in many 
places by the hedges the grass stands in the greatest 
luxuriance, and is not cropped by any animal, also the 
wayside plants are entirely untouched. 

Sain Foin. We saw one and another enclosure, 



* The elm is specially abundant on the London clay and Gault ; the 
oak on the Weald clay ; the beech on the chalk. In the north the elm is 
largely replaced by the Scotch plane, Acer Pseudo platanus. [J. L.] 



368 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

tappa, on the hills which was sown with Sain Foin only, 
which, however, was now cut and carried. Those who 
lived in this district told us that they do not sow nearly 
as much Sain Foin in Essex as in Kent, because it will 
not thrive there so well as in the last named district. Can 
this be because* in Kent there are more chalk-hills and 
chalk- valleys, kritbarg OCh kritbotten, than in Essex? 
Besides this, we saw also here and there enclosures of 
only clover, which also was now cut and carried. Sheep, 
F&ren, were also already turned in thither to feed on 
the stubs. 

Bohvete. Buckwheat. Here and there appeared 
large fields which were cropped only with Buckwheat. I 
certainly never saw it more beautiful than here. It stood 
now in full flower ; but had not yet set seed. The soil 
was a dry sandy soil, torr sandmylla, full of small 
pebblestones. 

[T. II. p. 30]. Akrar. In all the arable fields which 
lay here on the hills, there was not a single ditch ; nor 
were there any ' acre-mws ' except along the sides of the 
hedges ; but these were so narrow, that no one could go 
off them without necessarily going onto the ploughed 
part. Each farmer had his arable fields, meadows, and 
pastures divided off for himself without having to do with 
others. Some enclosures were here sown with wheat, 
others with Rye, others with Barley, Gumrik, others 
with White Oats, others with Peas, others were lying 
fallow. 

I did not notice anywhere on these hills that Beans 
were ever sown except near the farms. 

The fallow fields were very well cared for, and the 
mould on them was quite fine. 



* Yes. Sainfoin is largely cultivated on the Chalk, especially on Slopes, 
where there is nothing but chalk soil proper. [J. L.J 



ESSEX OPPOSITE GRAVESEND. 369 

On some Chalk, Krita, lay spread out, in other places 
was manure, carried out and shot in heaps still unspread. 
On the slope of a hill the fallow fields were arranged in 
stitches, ryggar, 2 feet wide and 1 foot high, so as to 
make it easier to eradicate the weeds by means of plough- 
ing, korning.* 

Ormbunkar. Brackens, Brakes. 
Pteris, the Bracken, 843 [Pteris Aquilina], had the 
same bad habit, oart, here, as in Sweden, that when 
they have once begun to grow in a field they are after- 
wards difficult to eradicate.! I saw to-day in several 
places that it grew as well out in the fallow fields as 
amongst the Rye, luxuriantly and in great abundance. 

Arter. Pease. 

We saw in different places large Pease-fields. The 
peas seemed to be flourishing. They were not sown with 
the drill or in rows, but with full hand, as is common with 
us. No sticks [T. II. p. 31] or branches, or such like, 
were found under them, but they lay on the bare ground. 
The pods were already tolerably ripe. I opened some, 
but found in everyone an astonishing number of small 
maggots, maskar, and, as it seemed, not all of one sort. 
I reckoned over 170 maggots in one pod. In the most 
matured pods the most maggots were found, but in those 

*K6rning, Ploughing. Kora is to drive, e.g., the plough. Not to be 
confounded with the English provincial word, ' Kerning,' from ' Kern,' a 
grain, or corn. "Kerning ground is that which, drest well, will produce a 
great quantity of corn, as gravel does, when others will run more into 
straw, and less corn" Will. Ellis. Practical Farmer, 4th Ed. 1742, 8vo. 
p. 169. [J.L.] 

f To eradicate Brackens, In Abkhaziya the bracken "grows in one 
" month to a greater height than a man on horseback. If they mow the fern 
" for three years in succession in the spring, when the scythe can still take hold 
" of it, then the plant perishes." From the Russian of Vladikin's " Kavkaziya," 
Moscow, 1874. 8vo, [J, Li] 

2R 



37° KALM'S ENGLAND. 

which were little matured few were seen, and in most 
cases none. Some of the fully ripened pods, however, 
were also free from maggots. 

On one other Pease-field where the Peas were still very 
little matured, we could not find any maggots in the 
pods. It may possibly happen that the insects, which 
had been the origin of the many maggots just described, 
had already closed their short life and were dead when 
these later peas began to flower, and they thus escaped 
this vermin. Lucky is he who so can sow his seed that 
the insects, which use to cause this damage in the fields 
and the country, come either too early or too late. 

In the evening we returned home to Gravesend. 

GRAVESEND. 
[T. II. p. 5.] Mjolkens Ansning, &c. The Dairy. 

Here in Kent the farmers or husbandmen keep only a 
few cows, so that they have not any more milk than they 
require for their own households. When the milk is 
newly milked, they sile* it in four-cornered boxes of lead. 
The length of such a milk-box, mjdlk-lada, is about 
2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches. Sometimes they are of the 
same length and breadth, the depth about 4 inches. 
When this box is siled in the morning nearly full of milk, 
it is left to stand so for twenty-four hours, or till the next 
morning, when the cream is skimmed off, d& graden 
skimias af, but the remaining sour milk is used either 
for the people, or, as mostly happens, it is given to the swine. 

In the same way, the milk that is siled one evening is 
skimmed the next, so that in the summer they never 
leave it to stand longer in the box than twenty-four hours, 

Sile, a milk strainer. Sile, v. to strain, as fresh milk from the cow, v. n. to 
sile down, to fall to the bottom, or subside. North. & Lincoln ; Grose, Prov. 
Gloss. [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 371 

but in the winter they allow it to stand for thirty-six 
hours, so that of the milk that is siled in the morning the 
cream is not taken off before the evening of the next day. 
From this cream butter is afterwards churned. 

I related to the English women how long we in 
Sweden let the milk stand before we take the ' curds/ 
filet, off it, when they answered that we could not in 
this way make such [T. II. p. 6] good butter as they. 
For they said they had proved that when one churns 
butter of such a cream as is taken off so sour a milk, the 
butter, has not one-half of the delicious and agreeable 
flavour, smacken, that the English generally has. A 
butter churned from so very thick a milk they here called 
girughets Smor, ' rank butter,' lit. ' butter of avarice.' 

They believed also that as much butter can be made 
of sweet cream as of sour. They never let the milk stand 
here in England so long that it becomes like our 
filbunkar [flat wooden dishes of curdled milk] with so 
thick cream and milk. Moreover, they do not know 
here what a filbunka is. They said that they use 
leaden vessels to sile the milk in, because in summer it 
keeps fresher therein. I asked if they did not use wooden 
vessels to sile milk in ? They answered, ' no,' because an 
acid settles in the wood and corrupts the milk, which 
acid they cannot so easily wash away. 

The leaden vessels are well washed with warm water 
every time they are used, so that not the least milk or 
acid therefrom is left in them, because it would corrupt 
the cream and consequently the butter. 

Very little or no cheese, ost, is made in this part of 
Kent. 

In Essex they have a large number of cows and cattle. 

Karnan. The Churn* which they use is a tun lying 



The Churn is still called Kern in Yorkshire. [J. L.] 

2B 



3?2 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

horizontally upon a frame, larger or smaller according to 
the quantity of milk they have for it, and has narrow 
boards set inside lengthwise, full of holes to work the 
cream more. This Churn is turned round with a winch- 
handle. 

The yth July, 1748. 

Gass. Geese. The story was related to me to-day by 
those who said they themselves had seen it, that in 
Lincolnshire [T. II. p. 7] and in other places in England, 
once a year, viz., in the summer-time, nearly all the 
feathers and down are plucked off living geese, which after a 
time again get new down and feathers in the place of the 
old ones ; although they will look disfigured enough at 
first, when they are newly plucked. Those who have 
this custom with their geese pretend that the down and 
feathers which are plucked off the goose whilst it is living 
will have the property that when they are laid in a bolster 
and anyone lies upon it so that they become crammed 
together, as soon as one gets out of bed, they will 
immediately spring up again and expand themselves to 
the same height as before, so that it will be scarcely 
observable whether anyone has lain in the bed. Such 
elasticity will this down have ! At least there will be a 
very great distinction in this respect between those which 
have been plucked from a goose while he was alive, and 
after he is dead. Here in Kent, as in Essex, there are 
geese enough bred by the farmers; likewise ducks, 
Anckor. 

At fa Kalf-K6tt hvitt. To make Veal white. 

Here in England, the county of Essex is particularly 
noted before other counties for its Calves, which have a 
very excellent, fat, very tender, and very white flesh. 
And that it may become so much the whiter, I saw 
during my visit to Woodford, that the Farmers, or rustics, 



GRAVESEND. 373 

used to lay a great piece of chalk in a trough where they 
had their fatted calves, that the calves might lick it, which 
in their opinion will have the effect of making the flesh 
become whiter. 

But besides this way, there was to-day related to me 
another trick, viz. : — If they slaughter a calf, say, at six 
o'clock in the evening, in the usual way, then they stick 
him in the neck, and let the blood run so nearly out of 
him that he is [T. II. p. 8] almost dead. When they see 
that no great quantity of blood is left, they stop the 
blood so that it can run no more, and that the calf comes 
round somewhat ; then let him so live till the morning of 
the following day, when they always slaughter him. A 
calf slaughtered in this way is said to have much whiter 
flesh than if they had slaughtered him in the ordinary 
way, and killed him all at once. 

The learned Dr. Lister also gives an account of this 
in his Journey to Paris, p.m. 157. 

Smor. Butter. 

In Canterbury, in Kent, butter is not sold by the 

pound or by weight, as is the custom everywhere else in 

England,* but it is made rectangular and flat as a board, 

and is sold by the yard,f efter alntal. The butter in 

* This is not quite accurate. In Plot's Nat. Hist, of Staffordshire, 1686, 
c. III., p. 108, 3 : — " Limestone Hills. . . . The butter they buy by the pot, 
of a long cylindrical form, made at Burslem in this county, of a certain size, 
so as not to weigh above 6 lbs. at most, and yet to contain at least 14 lbs. of 
butter, according to an Act of Parliament made about 14 or 16 years agoe." 
There was a Surveyor appointed in consequence of the " tricks and cheats" 
practised, whose duty it was to probe the butter-pots with a long "butter- 
boare " to see if they were packed full, "so that they weigh none (which would 
be an endless business), or very seldom." The Act of Parlia7nent referred to 
was passed in 1674, 14 Chas. II., c. 26, "Packing of butter." Repealed 
36 Geo. III., c. 86, s. 19, 1796. [J. L.] 

f In Mexico and California "jerked beef is sold by the vara ox yard, as 
butter is sold at Cambridge in England."— Flack, Prairie Hunter, p. 88. 

[J. L.] 



374 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Essex is said to be a good deal better and nicer-flavoured 
than that which is made in Kent, at least better than 
that which is to be had around Gravesend. 

Krita til husvaggar. Chalk in house walls. 

At a farm, en by, which lies not far from one of the 
chalk pits, we saw an outhouse whose walls were entirely 
[T. II. p. 9] built of chalk, which they had cut into 
quadrangular pieces. It was only at the corners of the 
house, and at the doors and the window openings that 
they had built with brick. One and another of these 
chalk bricks, Kritstenar, if I may so call them, was 
partly injured by the air, and was beginning to fall to 
pieces ; but most of them were flat and uninjured. The 
house seemed to have stood from 8 to 12 years. 

Hedera. Ivy. At several Farms Hedera arborea, C.B. 
[H. Helix] grew close against the walls, up which it 
clambered, and often entirely covered long walls, which, 
in consequence, looked very pretty. In like manner it 
clad in many places walls around churches, houses, and 
gardens. The walls of the before mentioned old church 
[Denton Church] were for a great part overdrawn with ivy. 

Vinranckor. Vines. 

At very many houses in Gravesend, and at a great 
many of the Farmers' and other houses, rich as well as 
poor, round about the country, they had planted vines on 
the sides of the houses and cottages which looked 
towards the south, mot SOlen,* and whose walls at this 
time oi the year were almost covered with them. 

Kersbarstran. Cherry trees. 

Kent is the district that has the name for this, that 

* "Turn not your vineyard to the setting sun." Georgics II., 298, orig. 
331, Tr. Mason, 1810, 8vo. [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 375 

therein grow not only the best and finest flavoured 
Cherries, Kersbar, in England, but also, if anyone will 
give credit to their account, in the whole world. Which- 
ever way one goes out of Gravesend, as well as farther 
out in the country, one sees almost everywhere near the 
farms, large fields and orchards, parcker, planted only 
with Cherry trees. In other places are found large 
orchards of Apples [T. II. p. 10] and Pears, Aplen OCh 
Paron, either planted separately by themselves or also, 
mixed with Cherry trees. The Cherry trees are planted 
ordine quincunciali* The ground, Marken, under them 
lies in some places entirely in grass, i linda, and is 
used either as meadow or pasture. 

On the south side of Northfieet Church was a large 
orchard of Cherry trees. The earth between the Cherry 
trees was ploughed up, made fine, and sown with wheat, 
which was now standing there as luxuriant and flourish- 
ing as at any place I saw on this country side. From 
the cultivated appearance of the soil it seemed as though 
they had long availed themselves of this land for 
ploughing. Several Apple trees were also planted here. 
The Cherry trees were now full of fruit, bar. The soil had 
apparently been well cared for, because it was not 
noticeable that the trees made the wheat thinner or 
poorer immediately under them. 

When I was over in that part of Essex which lies 
immediately opposite Gravesend, I remarked that almost 
everywhere where I wandered about I scarcely ever got 
to see any Cherry trees, much less any whole orchard of 
them, and not nearly so many as around Gravesend, in 
Kent. This caused me to ask the people in the villages 



* Quincunx. Adam, Roman Antiquities [1791, 2nd ed. f 1792], in the 
9th ed., 1822, p. 364, figures this two deep, that is to five parallel rows wide. 

[J. L.] 



376 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

the reason why they did not endeavour to plant here as 
many Cherry trees as in Kent, which lies close beside 
them, only that the river Thames divides them ? They 
answered that it could not well be done, because the 
Cherries in Essex never attain the same agreeable flavour 
as in Kent. Another said that because the soil in Essex 
is Gravel, grus, Cherry trees will not thrive there, ville 
ej kersbars traden der fort ; on the other hand, Pear 
trees flourish there well. 

Between Gravesend and Rochester I also saw [T. II., 
p. n] a great number of Cherry orchards on both sides of 
the road, especially towards the Gravesend side. The 
Cherry trees were here planted not ordine quincunciali, 
but all in squares. The distance between two trees was 
4 feet. The ground between and under the trees was 
entirely used up as arable, or also sown with Sain Foin, 
Clover, or Tares, Vicia Vulgaris Sativa, J. B. [Johann 
Bauhin]. To use these orchards also as ploughed fields 
seemed, however, to have something incongruous in it, 
for since the fruit ripened some weeks before the wheat, 
they were obliged, when they wished to have the use of 
the fruit, in many places round and under the trees, as 
well as between them, to trample down the wheat or the 
crop sown, which we saw happened to all Wheat, as well 
as Barley and Oats. But where the orchards were sown 
with Clover, Sain Foin, and Tares {Vicia), it was not 
incongruous, because these kinds of hay were commonly 
cut and stocked before the fruit was fully ripe. The 
English fruit-growers, Tragards mastare, maintain that 
the fruit trees thrive best and bear the most abundant 
and best flavoured fruit when the soil under and between 
the trees is kept cultivated, halles brukad, and loose, like 
a ploughed field, without any crops, grasses, or weeds 
being allowed to grow thereon. They had shot and 
hung hosts of dead Jackdaws, Kajor, Rooks, R&kor, 



GRAVESEND. 377 

Crows, Kr&kor, Magpies, Skator, &c, up in the 
branches of the trees to frighten away their comrades 
from coming thither either to scathe the trees or the 
crops. From these suspended, half-rotted, and stinking 
birds it was not difficult to know at a distance when 
some cherry orchard was in the neighbourhood. All 
through this time of the year whole boatloads of cherries 
of many sorts are carried from Gravesend * to London. 

[T. II., p. 12.] The 8th July, 1748. 
Akrar. Many of the arable fields which were lying 
fallow were so full of quickens, qvickrot, 105, that it was 
esteemed a pity. I never saw any ditch in all the arable 
fields which were in the neighbourhood around Gravesend, 
or thereabouts, no water -furrows, no acre-reins. The 
lowest places were commonly sown with Barley, Gum- 
rik, which commonly had 12 to 13 grains in each row. 
The colour of the soil also in among the ploughed fields 
was a flesh colour ; the mould very loose, with enough 
small round and flat flintstones and bits of chalk among 
it. In some places it could be plainly seen that ditches 
were needed, because the water had stood there and 
formed boggy ground, stannat OCh syrts, so that the 
wheat was very thin. In many places the fallow fields 
had not yet been ploughed since the crop reaped on 
them was carried, but they lay entirely overgrown with 
weeds. 

Vau.t 439 Dyers' Weed, Weld. [Reseda Luteola] 

* The Cherry orchards have long disappeared from the neighbourhood of 
Gravesend. 1890. [J. L.] 

-f-VAU. Dan. Vau, Vouvre ; Ger. Wau. — Miiller Dan. Dents. Worterb. 
1800 ; Dnt. Wouw ; Eng. 'Weld, a kind of herb whose stalk and root is in 
great use for dying the bright and yellow lemon colour.' — Bailey, Eng. 
Die. 1730. 15th Ed. 1753; Fr. Gaude. Botan. Reseda Luteola, Dyer's Weed. 
'Reseda Lul. yields 'Weld' a yellow dye.' — Hooker Stud. Flor. 870. p. 41. 



37^ KALM'S ENGLAND. 

which is cultivated for its yellow colour, was in several 
places drawn up root and all, bound in small sheaves, 
Karfvar, which were set one against another in the 
fields to dry, in the same way as we do with Hemp and 
Flax. Its seeds were still not much more than half ripe. 
It grew here wild, in places abundantly, in other places 
it was expressly planted. 

The gth July, 1748. 

Angar. The low places in Kent which at high water 
lay below the level of the water in the river Thames, 
were divided into meadows and pastures 

[T. II. p. 13.] 

No trees grew on these lowland 

meadows, but instead of hedges or other fences around 
them, there were deep dikes about a fathom wide, which 
now stood nearly full of water. 

Arundo Vulgaris Palustris J.B., the Reed [Phragmites 
communis] and Scirpus 39 [S. Maritimus] or the Sea-rush, 
hafssav, grew in the greatest abundance in these dikes 
and were considered very good fodder. 

The kinds of grass of which the plants on these 
meadows principally consisted, were Alopecurus culmo 
erecto 52. [A pratensis], Gramen Secalinum pratense 
elatius (Morison) [Hordeum Secalinum] and Air a 67 syn. 
Gramen lanatum (Dalech) [Holcus Mollis]. 

These here formed the finest, thickest, and most 
luxuriant grass sward that anyone could wish to have on 
his meadow. It was now being mown here with all 
diligence. The pastures were divided into many parts, 
so that when the cattle went for one week on one pas- 
ture, the grass was growing in two or three others, where 
the cattle had been before : and when the cattle had been 
here one week, they were moved to the pasture which at 
the last change had been longest free from their bait. 



GRAVESEND. 379 

Hence it happened to a certain extent that the grass 
grew between the cattle's feet ! 

In every pasture was commonly a little pond with 
sloping sides or banks, on one side of the field, that the 
cattle might get their water : because the banks of the 
dikes were designedly made so steep that they could not 
get at the water to drink therefrom. 

On the meadows there is not the least sign of moss 
found, because the thick and luxuriant grass prevents such. 

[T. II. p. 14.] In most places the meadows were 
smooth and flat without any hillocks, tuf va, but in some 
places, especially higher up against the ploughed fields, 
were hillock, tufvor, enough, but small. In one and all 
of them which we dug asunder, was found a multitude of 
small yellow ants, myror. In several places where they 
had newly and to-day mown hay, we found loose mould 
in small hillocks, newly, and probably only this week 
constructed, and resembling a mole-hill, mullvadshog, 
but when this mould was scattered, it was found full of 
the before-named ants. Thus have they heaved up these 
hillocks, tufvor. But we also had the opportunity of 
discovering another cause for these hillocks in this 
situation, which was J uncus acutus panicula sparsa, C. B. 
[J. Tenax Banks. MS.] This grew in many places in 
very great abundance, and had the peculiarity of always 
growing in tufts or tussocks, tufvor. It is not destroyed 
by any animal on account of its hardness and roughness 
or bristling exterior ; it takes hold of dust, damb, straw, 
stra, and anything that is driven by the wind. Directly 
this begins to grow on the smoothest ground it makes it 
in a few years full of hillocks, tufvor. 

Godslens formerande. A mode of increasing the 
quantity of manure. 

The soil, which is dug up when the before-named dikes 



380 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

are made was after some time carried home by the 
farmers, where it was laid in the farm yards, alternately 
with the cattle-dung, in heaps, to lie there and ferment 
together with the same, which thus made a choice 
manure. 

The [& an] A>ty, I748-* 

Gardesgardar. Fences. 

In some places only we saw fences, which were made 
mostly of small sprays, spratar, which wattled fences 
are, in some parts of the country, very much used. They 
are made in this way [T. II. p. 15] that, instead of 
placing, as we do, two staves side by side, there is only 
one set by itself, which generally is not longer than the 
height of the fence. Between two staves there is a 
distance of about 2 feet. Instead of ' edder,' Gardsel, 
small branches or twigs of trees are used, which are bent 
alternately in curves about the staves in this way, that 
when the one staff has been left on the left side of the 
horizontally placed runners, spraten, the next staff comes 
to be on the right side of the same, and so on. 

Serratula. Foliis dentatis Spinosis, 662, or Aker- 
tisteln, [5. Arvensis, L., afterwards Cnicus arvensis L. 
now Cissium (Tournefort) arvensis] grew in many places 
in the greatest profusion in the loose mould on the walls. 
In some places it was cut down, that it could not get the 
chance of ripening and seeding, and so doing injury to 
the neighbouring ploughed fields and kitchen-gardens. 

In other places they had the mischievous practice, 
common in Sweden, of leaving the thistle untouched, by 
which it was much more easily enabled to spread itself all 

* This is the first appearance in this work of the double or alternative 
date contemplating the difference of eleven days between the Old and New 
Style.-[J.L.] 



GRAVESEND. 38 1 

around, and become injurious to the crops sown, and also 
to the kitchen garden plants. 

Vagar. Roads. 

Almost everywhere on both sides of the high roads, 
were hawthorn hedges planted, so that one walked or 
travelled here as in an A llee, or in a garden. 

These high roads had not the character, as with us in 
Sweden, that the road lay higher than the land around, 
but here exactly the opposite is the case — viz., so that 
the road goes in most places deep down in the earth, to 
a depth of 2, 4, or 6 feet, so that many would believe the 
road was only some dry stream-course. There is com- 
monly on one side of the road [T. II. p. 16], if not on 
both sides, on the walls or the high sides, a footpath, 
gangwag, on which those who travel on foot go, so that 
they are not in danger from those who drive or ride. 

That the roads are so deep seems to come from this, that 
in this country very large wagons, vagnar, are used with 
many horses in front, on which wagons a very heavy load 
is laid. Through many years' driving, korning, these 
wagons seem to have eaten down into the ground, and 
made the road so deep. On the other hand, the hedges 
which are planted on both sides of the road had in- 
creased their mould, partly from dust which had been fixed 
by them, partly from the leaves which they let fall yearly, 
partly from the earth which is shovelled up like a little 
wall against the roots when the hedge is made or laid 
down. But the principal cause, nevertheless, seems to 
be due to the wagons, because the arable-fields, pastures, 
and meadows on the sides equally in most places lie higher 
than the road. The soil, jordmon, which here consists of 
sandy gravel and pebbles, sandgrus OCh klapper, and 
which immediately absorbs water, causes these roads to 
suffer little injury from rain* During heavy rain some 



382 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

water runs along these roads, but it does not last long, 
and, moreover, running water outside the river Thames 
is here very scarce. 

The -i-f July, 1748. 

Bonor. Beans. On whichever side I went out 
round Gravesend in Kent, I always got to see on every farm, 
Farmer's g&rd, some large beanfield. In some places 
were whole large arable fields and tracts sown with beans 
only. It was commonly the sort which has small and 
narrow pods. 

In all the places I saw them, they were sown in rows. 
The distance or width between two rows [T. II. p. 17] 
was uncertain, sometimes it was as much as 2 feet 6 
inches, sometimes less, even to only 6 inches — which, 
however, seemed too thick. It was not too much when 
just 1 foot width was left between the rows. 

The distance between each Bean-plant, Bdn-Stand, 
and the next in the row was however not the same through- 
out, but just as if they had been in a hurry when they sowed 
them. I saw them stand one foot from each other ; 
sometimes, however, they had scarcely more than an 
inch breadth between them. They commonly stood six 
inches from each other, which space they certainly 
required, if not a little more. The reason why the 
Beans were sown in rows was partly that they could get 
at them so much the more readily to clean away the weeds 
between them with a hoe, as well as afterwards the 
better to be able to pluck off their green pods, which 
they send to London to be sold ; partly that by casting 
up the mould to the stalks they furthered the growth of 
the Beans. 

After the stalk had attained some length, the top was 
cut off that it might shoot no more in length, but turn 
all its strength on the maturing of the Beans. They 



GRAVESEND. 383 

were sown at different times, whence it happened that 
when some plots exhibited ripe beans, in other places 
they were just beginning to strike out into flowers. The 
principal reason why there are so many beans sown here 
is that they feed horses and pigs with them in the 
winter. 

The U July, 1748. 

Svartmyllans tjocklek. Thickness of the soil. 

Near one of the chalk-pits, krit-groparna, was an 
orchard, tragard, which consisted partly of [T. II. p. 18] 
cherries and partly of Walnut-trees. Here, on one side 
of the Chalk-pit, they had taken away all the soil or 
vegetable-earth svartmyllan eller matjorden, which 
lay upon the chalk. This soil, matjord, was not black, 
but rather more of a flesh-colour. The thickness of the 
soil svart-myllan eller matjorden, was here mostly 
21 inches, in some places 27 inches, in other places 
18 inches and thereabout. The upper surface of the 
chalk was however, not horizontal, but went more like 
waves. 

At gora Vin af Russin. To make Wine of Raisins. 

My landlady where I had my quarters here in 
Gravesend, had Wine which she herself had made from 
Raisins, which was so good that those who wish to be 
thought to be judges of wines had difficulty in distin- 
guishing it from Madeira Wine. 

The Receipt was given me, how it is made, which 
was thus : — 

To 100 lbs. of Smyrna Raisins are added 45 to 50 
pints of water, which is afterwards stirred twice a day, 
for a period of fourteen or sixteen days. 

Thereupon, the raisins are well pressed, and the Wine, 



384 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

or the expressed juice of the Raisins, is poured into a 
barrel, ankare, which holds about 30 pints, kannor. 
Afterwards a piece of brown paper is taken and stuck full 
of holes, and laid over the bung-hole, sprund halet. Some 
of the wine, or the expressed juice, must be preserved in 
an open vessel to fill up the barrel, according as it works 
itself out, or ferments over. It must so stand till the 
whole of it again begins to ferment. Thereupon three 
quarts of well distilled Brandy, are added, with one pound 
of the best sugar, the white [T. II. p. 19] of sixteen eggs, 
and one ounce of alum, which has been boiled in one 
quart of water. All this is mixed well together, and laid 
in the barrel, which is well shaken about, bunged, and 
left to stand so for one year before it is tapped. 

On the foregoing it is to be remarked : ist. That when 
one begins to blend the Raisins and water together, the 
water is .thrown into a tub, kar, or vat, vatten-S&, 
which ought to be very clean. 

While they are both being agitated together in the 
same vessel, karil, the vessel is covered over with 
cloths, that earth and such like may not get into it. 

2ndly. The sugar and white of egg are whipped 
before the alum is put in, for if you were to put the alum 
in at the same time, it would cause the egg to coagulate. 
The water in which the alum is boiled ought, moreover, 
to stand till it is cool, before it is thrown into the sugar 
and egg. 

At gora et svagare vin. To make a milder wine. 

After you have made a strong wine in the foregoing 
manner, pour anew twenty pints of water on the pressed 
out raisins, and let it stand one week, after which it is 
pressed out from the raisins, and is poured into a 
fifteen-pint barrel ; and when it has done fermenting 
there are put therein half as much Spirit of Wine, Sugar, 



GRAVESEND. 385 

White of Egg, and Alum, as in the former. After three 
weeks' time, it may be ready to be tapped. This weak 
wine will not keep long, but after it is tapped and bottled, 
it must be drunk at once. The stronger wine becomes 
better and more agreeable, the longer it afterwards 
stands untouched, and that for many years. 

[T. II. p. 20.] Note. — Wine so made of Red Smyrna 
Raisins becomes sweet ; but of black Smyrna Raisins it 
becomes like Madeira wine. 

Strata Terra. Immediately west of Northfleet, which 

lies about a couple of English miles west of Gravesend, 

there was by the highroad a large pit, grop, out of 

which they had taken partly Pebblestone, to lay on the 

road, partly sand for different purposes. 

ft. in. 

1. On the top Pebblestone, larger or smaller, 
mingled with a somewhat fine brick-coloured sand, 
though Pebblestone formed the greater part 2 6 

2. A brick-coloured somewhat fine sand, at the 
thickest i foot, but thinner on both sides till it 

was entirely lost in Pebblestone t o 

3. Pebblestone mixed with a somewhat fine 
brick-coloured sand, like No. 1 ; yet the thick- 
ness of this Stratum was not everywhere the same, 
for here in the middle it was thinnest, but towards 

both sides it became thicker 2 o 

4. Same sand as No. 2 lost itself similarly in 
Pebblestone, otherwise the strata of this sand were 
always entirely clean and free from Pebblestone ... 6 

5. Pebblestone, mixed with quantity enough of 

the brick-coloured sand 3 o 

6. Same sand as No. 2, but we could clearly 
see that this had not come hither all at once, but 
by degrees, for it was divided into exceedingly 

thin strata .. 2 o 

2C 



386 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

ft. in. 

7. A dark brick-coloured or brownish clay. 
[T. II. p. 21.] It lay in some places imme- 
diately over the chalk ; in other places lay the 
sand, No. 6, next above the chalk o 4 

8. Krita. Chalk pebbles. This was the rarest 
bed we ever saw in any sand pit. It was mostly 
chalk, but nevertheless, mixed enough with small 
Pebblestones. Several pieces of chalk were ex- 
ternally quite smooth, shaped oval or round, and 
had the same appearance, figur, as Pebblestone, 
but when they were broken asunder they consisted 
of bare chalk. This bed was not of the same 
thickness throughout, but thinned out towards 

both sides till it was entirely lost 1 3 

9. A brick-coloured coarser sand, much mixed 

with Pebblestones 6 o 

10. Chalk mixed with fine light sand, small 
Pebblestones, together with a number of broken 
mussel and snail shells 1 ft. 6 in. to o 6 

11. A quite fine light sand passing to yellow, 
free from all foreign admixtures (heterogeneis) , 4 
feet thick, and who knows how far down ? because 
the fallen gravel, sand, &c, prevented us from 
seeing farther down. 

Obs. — That the thickness of one and all of these beds 
is not uniform, but sometimes thick, sometimes thin, 
sometimes entirely lost, as though someone had in former 
times tipped these strata out of a wheelbarrow, which 
can all be ascribed to varying directions of the currents, 
and the unequal movement of the waves, storms, &c. 

From this hill it may be 1 or I--J musket shot to the 
nearest Chalk pit, kritgrop, whose sides consist of bare 
chalk, and which is 12 or more fathoms deep, so that 
one can thus be sure that the whole of this [T. II. p. 22] 



GRAVESEND. 387 

hill just described, with its many strata, and which lies 
higher than the surface of the hills near the chalk pit, 
most certainly overlies the chalk, for visso Star pit 
krita. All the hill banks, strand backarna, of the 
Thames, i-^ musket shot below this hill, consist of bare 
chalk, either pure or mixed with Flints and small 
Pebblestones.* 

Svin. To prevent these animals from grubbing up 
the ground, and entering the ploughed fields through the 
hedges, they were, in Kent and Essex, both ringed in the 
snout and bore on their necks triangular wooden yokes, 
exactly in the same way as is done with us here in 
Sweden. 

Aim. Elm. When we were walking to-day down 
by the banks of the river below Northfleet, Nordfleet, 
where the river banks consist almost entirely of chalk, 
with interbedded flints here and there, with soil, svart- 
mylla, almost of a brick colour thereupon, we remarked 
how the large Elms which grew in the hedges on the 
river banks had penetrated with their roots through the 
soil, which was here 2 feet thick or more, right down to 
the chalk ; but as soon as they met the chalk they very 
seldom entered it, but then began to run horizontally 
along the bottom of the soil above the chalk. We re- 
marked this of -very many Elms. The chalk is probably 
too hard for their roots. It was only in one single place 
that I could see that a couple of Elm roots entered a 
fissure in the chalk for a depth of 1 foot or 18 inches 



* The beds here described are now known as the Oldhaven Pebble Beds 
of the Woolwich Series (Whitaker), and the Thanet Sand (Prestwich). This 
section was cited by Sir Torbern Olaf Bergman, (?)'orig. work, German 
tr. by L. H. Rohl in Welt-beschreibung, Th. I., cap. V., § 39., p. 114 
Greifsvald, 1769-74, 8vo. And again transl. into German, incorrectly, by 
Carl Abraham Gerhard, Versuch einer Geschichte des Mineral-reichs. 
Berlin, 1781-2, 8vo. Erster Theil, $ 100, p. 190. [J. L.] 

2C 2 



388 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

perpendicular. [T. II. p. 23.] The bank had slipped 
down, or been under-eaten by the water in the river, so 
that I could see this quite clearly in many trees. 

[T. II. p. 31.] The U JuM, 1748. 
Et satt at rida. A way of riding. 
In England they are much in the habit of practising 
a way of riding which is most strange, and not in use 
among us in Sweden. It is that two persons, the one 
a man and the other a woman, both sit on one and the 
same horse. The carl sits in front, guides and governs 
the horse in the usual way ; but the lady [T. II. p. 32], 
or woman, sits behind him in the same way as women 
generally sit on horseback, viz., sideways. It is here 
common to see them so come riding, not only in small 
places and out in the country, but even in the middle of 
London ; but especially in the summer time when they 
ride out of town for recreation. 

The if July. 

Ho-bargningen, Hd-stackar. Hay making, Hay 
stacks. 
The meadows were now in most places mown, but in 
some places they remained still to mow. In the fields 
the hay was treated in the same way as has been before 
named in this description of my travels, (T. I. p. 438). 
When it was quite dry it was set in cocks, valmar, 6 foot 
high, and down on the ground there were spread cocks 
from which it was afterwards carried to the place where 
the stacks were to be made. If the fields lay near the 
farm, the hay was carried home and stacked, but if they 
lay any considerable distance from the farm, the stack 
was made in the field. In the high-lying places the hay 
consisted mostly of Sain Foin, but in low places, of kinds 
of grass. 



GRAVESEND. 



389 



. The hay is carried to the stack in wagons, but where 
the fields were flat, they availed themselves of a very 
handy plan, which consisted in this, that they had a rope 
which was fastened to the harness or iron chains with 
which the horse drew. This rope was set round about 
the cock, and was turned down at the back and passed 
underneath it, and afterwards the rope was fastened by a 
loop to the chain, when the horse ran the whole cock to 
the stack, which was then being made in the field. There 
seemed to be little or no hay left behind the cock on the 
field [T. II. p. 33], but the cock came almost entire to the 
place. Instead of a bridge, they filled the dike with hay, 
over which they drove. 

Hostackarna, the haystacks are made either round 
as in Fig. 1, or oblong, and in the shape of a house, as 
Fig. 2. 




*^V^*X&SAlf/$A 



As the hay-stack was made the hay was trodden down at 
once, so that it might lie steady. At the beginning, and 
while the stack is still low, they have horses on it to 
trample the hay ; afterwards, higher up, the trampling is 
done by many men. When they have got the stack ready 
in one of the aforenamed shapes, the sides L N and M O 
in Fig. 1, and E F and C D G H in Fig. 2, are cut, with 



390 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

a knife specially made for the purpose, flat or smooth, 
partly that the cattle may not so easily be able to steal 
from it, partly that the rain and wet may not fasten 
thereon, partly that it might look better. 

I will for clearness call the upper and out-sloping 
sides A E and A B C D, Fig. 2, and K L, KM, Fig. 1 
'thatch,' tak, and the lower and in-sloping sides LN, 
M O Fig. 1 [T. II. p. 34], and E F, C D G H, Fig. 2, 
sides or walls. The stacks are always made so that they 
are widest at the thatch-band, tackbandet, and grow 
narrower afterwards down their sides all the way to the 
bottom. This also prevents the water which comes 
dripping from their thatch from rotting the walls or sides. 
Now follows how the thatching is effected. They are 
commonly thatched with straw, which is here taken from 
the wheat, as. they reckon that the best. Sometimes they 
are thatched with hay, but not so often. Then they raise 
a ladder against the haystack, so that it comes to lie 
along the direction of the thatch. Afterwards they take 
the ' baster,'* a small sheaf of straw, halm-karfva, which 
is bound with straw at both ends. This is laid down at 
the thatch band L M, CD, in this way that it comes to 
lie horizontally. Afterwards they stick a ' rick-peg ' (pron. 



* Baster. A long, narrow bundle of straw about as large as one can 
span with both hands, still used as described by Kahn, Sept. 1886, also for 
laying along the ridge of the stack to make the crest of the straw stand erect. 
At Gaddesden Row, Herts, it is pron. like ' Master.' Also in the form 
(Basse (disyll.) a collar for cart-horses made of rushes, straw, sedge, &c.' 
Bailey Die. 1736. Normandy Patois ■, Batiere, a packsadd/e, Fr. Bat, Ital. 
Basto ; O.N. (Ice/) Bastari, a bast binder, Fr. Batier, Ita/. Bastiere, bastaio, a 
pack-saddle maker. — O.N., Dan., Swed., Ger., Dut., Eng. Bast ' lime tree 
bark made into ropes and mats.' Bailey, Eng. Die. 1736. 'Bass, Bast, 
matting, dried rushes or sedges.' Brockett Northern G/oss. 3rd ed., 1846. 
Dan. 'Bast. Ger. Bast, damit man bindet.' G. H. Miiller, Dan-Deutsch 
Wort. 1800. — O.N. (Ice/.), Swed., Basta to bind into a bund/e, Dan. Baste og 
binde, to bind up ; &c. [J.L.] 



GRAVESEND. 39 1 

* reek-peg '),a narrow stick, right through each end of this 
baster or small straw sheaf into the stack, that the baster 
may lie steady. On this baster is afterwards laid loose 
straw about 3 or 4 inches thick, or 6 inches, or even a little 
more, so that the narrow ends of the straw are turned up 
towards the top of the stack, and the thick are laid across 
the above-named baster, karfva, so, however, that the 
ends project a little beyond the lower sides of the stack, 
to prevent the water which in wet weather runs down the 
thatch from pouring on to the sides of the stack. After 
they have laid the straw thus, they have ready to hand 
long, narrow, slender sticks [the 'rick-pegs'], which are 
sharpened at one end. One of them is taken and stuck 
in with the sharp end down in the stack, on one side of 
the straw already laid on, yet towards the higher part of 
the same. The rick-peg is then bent [T. II. p. 35] 
across the straw so as to lie horizontally. This horizontal 
part is called ' the rod/ To make it lie still, and at the 
same time fasten the straw, they have another sprata, 
' spray ' of 20 to 25 inches' length, which is sharpened at 
both ends, and in the middle is slightly cut out on one 
side, so that it can be bent together, of 

as in the accompanying figure, with- /C- 

out breaking off. The ' spray,' PQR, / \ 

thus bent is set into the stack in / \ O 
such a way that one end, P, goes in ^ f \ <^* 

one side, and the other end, Q, on the other side of 
the ' rod ' or long spar laid across the straw. 

The bent spray, PQR, is then pressed or beaten 
down till it fastens the end of the ' rod,' and likewise 
presses the straw and holds it fast. Afterwards new 
straw is taken, and is laid above this in the manner before 
described, to fasten in such a manner that the large ends 
of the new straw come to lie above and to cover the 
small ends of the straw previously laid below, and the 



392 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

same with the ' rods ' which were laid across it. On this 
new straw no rod was set, but they take still another lot 
of straw and set it a little higher up, and then it is first 
fastened with a long ' rod ' across, in the same way as 
has been described before. In this way it is continued 
upwards till one comes to the top, and there also fastens 
the straw. After that the ladder is moved a little more 
to one side, and the thatching is begun again down at 
the thatch-band, in the manner before described, tight 
in to that which is already thatched, and is continued so 
upwards. The row which is thatched every time 
[T. II. p. 36] from the bottom of the thatch, takfoten, 
up to the top before the ladder is changed, is as broad as 
the carl can reach to lay when he stands on the ladder. 
One or two carls are down below, who prepare the straw 
and give it up to the one who is thatching, who lays this 
straw near him till he requires it. That he may have 
the straw so much readier to hand, he has two pieces of 
stick of 2 to 3 feet long, which he sticks into the stack 
in a horizontal line, about two feet from each other. 
Above and against these the straw is laid ; but if it blows 
hard, he has still beside these, two other sticks, each about 
two feet long, sharpened at one end, and fastened together 
by a string, et band, at the other, as in the figure. 

He sticks these pegs, kappar, into the 
stack, the one on the lower side of the 
t straw, and the other on the upper side, when 
the string which is between them comes to 
lie across the straw, and holds it tight so 
that it cannot blow away. As soon as the 
carl has laid two rows of straw, or changed 
the ladder twice, he has a somewhat thick 
stick, kapp eller kafle, about four feet 
long, with which he beats down the straw to make it lie 
even, and afterwards smoothes down the straw with it, 




GRAVESEND. 393 

beginning above at the top of the stack, and so down- 
wards, when he also sweeps away all the loose straw 
which lies on the stack, and makes the straw-thatch on 
the whole smooth. After that he continues [T. II. 
p. 37] to thatch the upper part of the roof of the stack, 
in the manner before described. 

The lower sides, B D and C E, never stand perpen- 
dicular, but are always made so that the higher they get 
the farther they project outwards, so that the stack is 
narrowest down at the ground, and broadest up at the 
thack-band. Both the round and square have this 
peculiar shape, which prevents the water that drips down 
from the bottom of the thatch from falling on the lower 
sides and rotting them. No pole is set in the middle of 
a stack, as with us. 

In some places they make very large and high stacks. 
When the stack becomes so high that they can no longer 
reach to cast the hay from down below up to the carl upon 
the stack, there is built on one side of the stack a 
scaffold of boards, or a door which lies on two poles, on 
which a carl places himself, to whom the hay is first 
cast, and who afterwards sends it farther up on the stack. 

When the stacks are thatched with bare hay, some- 
times also when they are thatched with straw, they are 
often made smooth on the surface with simply a rake, 
rafsa, so that they, as it were, comb down the top of 
the stack with it. The shape of the haystacks and the 
manner of making them was everywhere in this district 
the same as I have now described. Most haystacks were 
here thatched with straw. 

Up at the summit of the haystack the spars always 
lie bare and uncovered, and thus come to be seen there. 
The stacks were always so arranged that the thatch was 
very steep, for the rain and wet to be able to run off 
so much the quicker. The pitchforks, Jarngafflarna, 



394 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

they used were of different sizes and lengths. In those 
with [T. II. p. 38] which they cast the hay up on to the 
stack, the pitchfork, j arngaffeln, itself was 1 foot 
long and 6 inches between the ' grains ' or ' tines,' * 
grenarna, fastened to the handle with an iron ring, as 
on an ice-pick, the shaft two fathoms long, or as long as 
one wishes. The small forks, to toss the hay on the 
meadow, were 6 inches long, and 4 inches between the 
* gaffles ' or ' tines,' gafflarna,f the length of the shaft 
at will. The tines or prongs on all these forks were not 
straight, but slightly curved, Grenarna pa alia dessa 
gafflar voro ej rake, utan litet krokuta. A figure of 
such a hayfork, hogaffel, can be seen in Linnaeus's Skdnska 
Resa, p. 303, fig. b [Stockholm, 1751.8VO.]. When they here 
made a haystack, there commonly stood a carl who, with 
one of the before-named pitchforks, jarntjufvor, 
pitched up the hay. One or two carls received it, and 
spread it out evenly on the stack, as they found it best. 
Afterwards there were commonly four lads who did 
nothing else than constantly trample it. The lower sides, 
or the lower parts of the stack, were made smooth with 
a rake, and the hay was also raked off, so that the stack 
in its lower parts might be so much narrower, and wider 
upwards. 

The iHr July. 

In the morning we walked from Gravesend to 
Rochester, which lies 7 English miles from the first- 
named place. 

Utsigten af Landet. The appearance of the 
country. We had the whole way a variety of ploughed 



* ' Tine the grain of a fork ' (Bailey, Eng. Die. 1736), i.e. branch or 
trong. [J. L.] 

f ' Gaffle, part of a crossbow.' ib. [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 395 

fields, meadows and orchards, all planted round with 
hawthorn hedges, in which stood all kinds of foliaged 
trees, loftran, such as Elm, Aim, Elder, Flader, 
Blackberry-bushes, Bj ornbarsbuskar , Ash, Ask, Oak, 
Ek [T. II. p. 39], Dogwood, Benved, or Cornel 
(Cornus), Aspen, Asp, Ivy (Hedera Arborea, C. B.) 
[H. Helix], Sloe, Slan, Privets (Liguster), the Spindle- 
tree, Alster, Euonymus [Europaeus], Maple (Acer 
Campestre minus) C. B. 

Here and there lay some beautiful farm. The country 
here, as in most places where we were in England, was 
not even and flat, but a continuous chain and variety of 
somewhat high and long-sloping hills, with valleys 
between. These hills had all sorts of shapes, sometimes 
round as rye-bread loaves, sometimes oblong, and of 
various other shapes. The inclosures, or ploughed fields 
and meadows, lay on the tops and the sides of the hills, 
as well as down in the valleys, dalderna. In some 
places these hills were steep enough. They all consisted 
of bare chalk, which had only a coating of soil upon it, of 
9 inches, i foot, 15 inches, or 18 inches, yet in most places 
not more than about 1 foot thickness, which we could 
plainly see the whole way where the high road crossed 
these hills and they had been digging on the sides of the 
road ; to say nothing of the fact that the same appeared 
in all the chalk-pits, kritgropar, which were dug here 
and there. On the whole of this walk we could not see 
the least sign of any flowing and running stream or river, 
excepting the river Medway (Midway) which passes by 
Rochester. Such running water seems to be very rare 
on the chalk hills and in their neighbourhood. 

The greater part of the inclosures, or tappor planted 
round with hedges, which we saw to-day were ploughed 
fields, sown partly with Wheat (Triticum hybernum aristis 
carens, C.B.), Barley, Gumrik, White Oats [T. II. p. 40], 



396 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Beans, or Pease. I do not know of which of these kinds 
there was most, either of Wheat or Barley. It seemed as 
though there was more Barley on the Gravesend side, 
and that Wheat prevailed around Rochester. Of Oats 
there was the least. We also saw in some places large 
hop-grounds, Immmel-ga. On the Gravesend side there 
were extensive inclosures, planted with Cherry-trees ; 
but towards and at Rochester there were not so many 
of them. When we had come a mile out of Gravesend 
we came to a little wood which consisted of all the above- 
named kinds of leaf trees, where we set down as a great 
rarity two trees which we had not before had the pleasure 
to see growing wild in England, viz., our Birch, var 
Bjork, which stood in a little bog,* Karr, and Juniper 
bushes, Enbuskar, of which last we saw several on a 
chalk-hill, where they grew on the rough chalk, and had 
scarcely 3 inches of soil upon the chalk. They seemed, 
however, to be tolerably luxuriant. 

Tragardar af Kersbars, Apple, Paron, och 
Valnot tran. Orchards of Cherry, Apple, Pear, and Walnut 
trees. I have just said that we saw here a great number 
of Orchards, planted with Cherries and other fruit trees. 
The notes I made about the orchards in this district are 
given above under the 7th July. As far as regards the 
other trees, we saw likewise a multitude of apple and 
pear trees, planted either in the same orchard with the 
cherry trees promiscuously, or also by themselves. The 
earth under and between them was in [T. II. p. 41] the 
same condition as I described on the 7th July respecting 
the cherry trees, ploughed up, and used as an arable-field, 
or grassfield, so that these fruit-trees stood in the middle 
of crops or grass. They were, nevertheless, much better 
adapted to have crops sown under and between them, 

* This certainly fixes the site at Denton. [J. L.] 






GRAVESEND. 397 

because the crops ripened as soon as, if not before, the 
ripening of their fruit, and thus there was no necessity for 
them to trample down the crops while gathering the fruit. 
At the sides of these orchards, and often at the sides of 
the ploughed fields, and at home at the farms stood plenty 
of large walnut trees, there planted, and now full of fruit. 
Strata Terrce. I remarked a little above, that nearly 
all the hill sides, backar, between Gravesend and 
Rochester consisted only of chalk, af bara krita, with 
only a thin stratum of soil, svartmylla, lying upon it ; 
yet we saw in 2 or 3 places that some of these chalk-hills, 
kritbarg, had above and upon them not chalk, but a 
hill of sand, en backa af sand, at times mixed with 
small Pebblestones, which sandhill lay upon the chalk, 
which was beneath it, and it was remarkable that the 
chalk-hills which had such a sandhill or collection of sand 
upon them, were commonly the highest hills of all we 
saw along this road. But how this sand in former ages 
came there, either by some river, or in what way, I cannot 
say. We found, however, that the sand in such a hill 
upon the chalk, was not of one kind only, but consisted of 
many sorts which lay alternately upon one another. I 
will give their position in one of these hills, backar, 
through the middle of which the highway ran. 

[T. II. p. 42.] 

ft. in. 

i. Svartmylla. On the top, soil of 9 to 12 ins. 
thickness, but sandy enough 1 o 

2. A yellow fine sand, with just coherence 
sufficient to form lumps hardt i klimpar hop- 
sittande fin sand 2 9 

3. A light-yellow quite fine looser sand 3 o 

4. A very fine grey sand 3 o 

9 9 



39^ KALM'S ENGLAND. 

and who knows how much more, because the bottom of 
the pit prevented us from getting farther down, but, that 
it could not go a very great depth, could be concluded 
from this, that the hill-sides on both sides below, consisted 
of bare chalk, as we saw on both sides of the high road, 
which was dug in them. Here and there in each of the 
above-reckoned sand-strata, there were some small pieces 
of, I know not what I shall call it, which looked as if it 
had been a nail rusted away.* 

Hagnad om akrar, angar, &c. 

Around nearly all the enclosures, such as ploughed 
fields, meadows, orchards, &c, were planted hedges of 
hawthorn, but they were in some places worthless enough. 
In only a few places were there any ' Raddles,' or wooden 
hurdles, Ris-gardes-gard ; at times, but seldom, one got 
to see such wattled-hurdles, sprat-gardes-gard, as were 
described above (T. II. p. 14, orig.). 

Akrarne. The ploughed fields we saw to-day, lay 
both on the tops of the hills, and on their sides. I have 
recently named (T. II. pp. 39, 40, orig.), the kinds of 
crops that were sown on them. There were no dikes 
or water-furrows ever seen on or near them — both of 
which, however, would be of little use here, because the 
chalk soil seems to absorb all the water [T. II. p. 43], in 
respect of which we did not see the least flowing water all 
along this road. I saw no ditches by the road-side, 
which is a sign that the water cannot possibly remain 
there long. If by the side of any single hedge, there was 
sometimes found a ditch, this seemed only to be made to 
get earth out of, to make a bank on which the hedge had 
been planted, and to get mould to cast up on to the roots of 



* At Poling Wood, Sussex, where the Reading clays are dug for the 
pottery, these pieces of " what-you-may-call-it " are called by the workmen 
■< Rock." [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 399 

the hawthorn of which the hedge had been made. There 
were no acre-reins out on the ploughed fields, but only very 
narrow ones at the sides of the fields, close to the hedges. 
These were so narrow that one could with difficulty walk 
upon them still less mow any hay there. In most places 
these ploughed fields lay full of small Pebblestones. The 
land was ploughed quite even and flat, that which was 
sown with wheat as well as that with other kinds of 
crops, but there were some riggs or stitches. There were 
very many weeds on a great part of their fallow fields. 
Some were thus full of quickens, which had been sown 
there ; others full of wild poppies, Vallmoge, various 
kinds of Thistles, tistlar, and other weeds, Ogras. But 
it was not to be wondered at, because the ploughed fields 
in such places at this time of the year were left untilled. 

With such agriculture, akerbruk, it is not difficult 
to understand why their Wheat, Barley, Oats, Pease and 
Bean-fields, stand so full of wild Poppies and other weeds, 
viz. : partly because they manage the ploughed-fields so 
badly, and leave the weeds all freedom to run to seed and 
sow themselves. I remarked that they used frequently 
to drive horses, sheep, and cows, to bait on the same, but 
[T. II. p. 44] while they meant to reap a profit, they 
caused themselves double loss ; for while, it is true, they 
commonly ate up the wild poppies, yet several of the 
other rank weeds were left (such as thistles ; &c), mostly 
to stand untouched by the cattle. Such a fallow-field 
was often left to lie two or three years uncultivated and 
as a pasture. 

Though it happened, truly enough, that when the 
earth got as it were a coating of grass-sward, grasvall, 
over it, the number of thistles and other weeds diminished ; 
yet as soon as such a pasture was again ploughed up, the 
earth loosened, and cultivated as a ploughed field, and 
sown with seed, the manifold seeds of weeds lying in the 



400 KALM S ENGLAND. 

earth also got new life, came up to the day, grew, 
grodde, and in many places smothered the crop; for 
their seed has the property, that if the ground is hard, 
and unfit for them to come up, they can lie many years 
down in the ground without growing or taking harm, but 
quicken as soon as the earth is moved and turned over. 
From this we see how necessary are many courses of 
ploughing during the summer in a field confounded with 
weeds. 

The Pease in these fields were partly sown in rows and 
the earth ploughed up between : the weeds uprooted, and 
the mould moved on to the roots, so that the stalks are 
on a hill. We also saw the Pease-land sown in the same 
way in rows, but never cleared of weeds, or the earth dug 
up between, but the weeds were entirely smothering and 
taking the life out of the Pease. In many places the 
Peas were sown broad-cast, as with us, and there the 
weeds and the Pease had to fight with each other for 
existence, as they best could. 

The Pease were nowhere furnished with sticks. 

[T. II. p. 45.] Of the Harrow and Roller here used 
there is nothing particular to record ; they are mostly 
like ours. The Plough, Plogen, in Kent has this advan- 
tage, that the ploughshare, vandbradet, can easily be 
changed to whichever side of the plough one wishes. 
But in other respects it merits no recommendation, 
because it is very heavy and unwieldy. 

.The soil, jordmon, on all these ploughed fields was 
of so loose a nature, that they could in the greatest 
drought plough it up when they wished. In such a loose 
earth they nearly always set three pair of horses, as large 
as the largest Dragoon horses, before this plough ; then 
one full-grown person was required to hold the plough, 
and a boy, g&sse, to drive the horses : we sometimes 
saw even as many as five or six pairs of such large horses 



GRAVESEND. 40I 

set before one plough. Such an earth, for whose ploughing 
up they laboured with three pairs of horses, we could at 
all times in Sweden with the Westmanland plough, and 
especially with Baron Brauner's, without doubt equally 
well and finely plough up with one pair of horses, if not 
with a single one. The Kentish plough has this peculiarity 
that it ploughs deeper than most other ploughs. We saw 
however, in some places to-day, fallow fields, which lay 
quite well farmed and ploughed up, so that the earth was 
friable and fine as the best new-made bed in a garden. 
Beans were mostly sown in rows, and treated in the same 
way as described above (T. II. p. 16 orig.) yet they were 
also here and there sown, as with us, broad-cast. 

[T. II. p. 46.] Vagarna. The roads here were good 
enough. Although the ground was chalk, and therefore 
firm, yet they were not satisfied with that, but coarse 
sand and small Pebblestones were everywhere carted on to 
them, because Chalk in wet weather is slippery enough. 
On both sides of the road there were mostly hedges, and 
the road went, especially in hills, deep down in the 
ground, even to eight or ten feet. There were no ditches 
beside the road. 

Vaderqyarn. Windmills. Here and there on the 
hills, appeared some Windmills, built in the usual way. 
At Rochester was a Windmill which pumped up the 
water for the use of the town. 

Vastanvind. The west wind strong in England. That 
the west wind in this part of England must be one of the 
longest lasting, and strongest winds appeared clearly 
from this, that in the plantations, Tragardar, which 
nevertheless, lay quite even, and not so especially facing 
this wind, the trees bent over from the west, with the 
upper part considerably over towards the east side, which 
oblique and leaning growth was without doubt caused by 
the aforesaid west wind. 

2D 



402 



KALM'S ENGLAND. 



Kyrkor. Churches, the ancient ones mostly of Flints, &c. 
I have mentioned above (T. I. pp. 479-80), that nearly 
all the old Churches in this part were built of Flints, 
as Chadwell in Essex, Northfleet west of Gravesend, 
and several others in Kent. To-day also we saw that 
many Churches in Rochester were for the most part built 
[T. II. p. 47] of bare flint, Plinta, only that they used 
some Portland stone among them. 

We went after- 
wards from the high 
road up to a hamlet, 
til en by, where we 
saw an old Church 
which they used as 
a nialthouse* hollo 
pa at gora til et 
malthus. This was 
similarly almost en- 
tirely built of Flints, 
only that the window 
frames and mullions, 
fonster karmar 
och ramar, and the 
door-posts, dor- 
tran, were of Port- 
land stone. The West Front of Ruined Church at 
windows were quite Iv y Cottage, Skorne, 1887. 
small. There appeared, truly enough, bricks, tegelstenar, 
in the walls in one place and another, but it could at 
the same time be plainly seen, that the wall had there 
been broken, and that the brickwork was the work of 
later times. 




* In lane to Shorne. Kalm was the first writer who notices this ruin. 
The Kentish Traveller, 4II1 Ed., 1790, has a paiagrapb, p. 116: "On the 



GRAVESEND. 



403 



We saw afterwards another Church [the description 
applies to Shorne Church], which similarly, was for the 
greatest part built of Flints, flintor, yet that Portland 
stone was here and there built into the wall. The 
window frames and tracery as well as the door-posts 
were always, in all such old Churches, of Portland stone ; 
also frequently the angles of the Church walls and the tower. 

The windows were mostly small enough. For which 



west side of the lane opposite to the house marked Mr. Maplesden's in the 

Map, the traveller will probably 
notice an ancient Chapel or Oratory. 
There can be no doubt of its having 
been a sacred edifice, because in 
digging for the foundation of the 
contiguous building a stone coffin 
and many human bones were dis- 
covered. In Mr. Thorpe's Antiquities 
is an engraving of the North-West 
view of this Chapel, but it is left to 
the researches of future antiquaries 
to ascertain when and by whom it 
had its original, no deed or other 
historical evidence having yet been 
met with relative to its institution 
or endowment." The Map referred 
to in the above note is on the scale 
of one inch to a mile in the K. 7. Mr. Maplesden's house is now called Pipes 
Place, and a little cross-lane into the above lane from the west and passing 
south of the ruin is called ' Malthouse Lane.' I have not been able to find 
the alleged view in any of the thirteen plates in Thorpe's Antiquities. On 
August 10th, 1887, I visited the ruin, when Mrs. Cheesman, ret 84, told me 
that when she was young it was always called 'the Malthouse,' but that she 
did not know that it had ever been used as such. Kalm's description is 
accurate. The windows are all two-light, but the mullions are gone. This 
was a true Church ; A Piscina and two sedilia are to be seen on the south side 
interior. The architecture is pure Early English, probably early 13th century. 
The curious history of the extinct Merston Church close by, leaves room 
to suppose that this too was once a parish church. This venerable ruin forms 
part of a modern residence known as Ivy Cottage, and seems to be totally 
unknown to modern Archaeologists. (J. L ] 

2D 2 




Wallers 
6lTts.toa.JKiUs 



404 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

reasons we may conclude : (1) That the brick kiln, Tegel- 
branneri, in former times seems to have been little 
known, or at least not specially used in this district. 
(2) That the use of Glass, Glasbruken, also in those 
times was not very great. 

On the south side of another Church there have for- 
merly been three large doors side by side ; but they were 
afterwards built up with flints, and made only into small 
windows. 

Some of these old churches now stood deep down in 
the earth so that their floor was much deeper down than 
the outer surface of the Churchyard — a sign of their great 
age. Thus, either the Church has sunk, or the earth in 
the Churchyard has been raised by [T. II. p. 48] the 
corpses and coffins buried there, with other earth that 
had been carried there, or all these causes together. 

I also noticed that in most places in this district, and 
also in Essex, they used the churchyards where the) 7 
buried their dead as pastures for horses, donkeys, or 
pigs, but especially for horses. In some places the 
churchyard, Kyrkogarden, was used also as a hay- 
field or meadow, so that they mowed the grass before 
the cattle were driven in thither. 

Rochester is a beautiful town, tolerably large, and very 
old, lying on both sides of the river Medway* about 27 
English miles from London. Here about are several 
hills, and part of the town also lies upon them, but still 
it is mostly down in the valleys by the river side. The 
houses are mostly of brick, some of them quite beautiful. 
There are several churches here, some of antique archi- 
tecture, gammal modig byggnad. Over the river 



On both sides of the river. Strood occupies the left bank opposite 
ster. 17. L.l 



Rochester. [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 405 

Med way runs a large stone bridge,* which is reckoned 
to be one of the finest in England. In the town is 
a Cathedral and Bishop's Palace. A short distance 
below the town lies the famous Chatham, where the 
English men-of-war are partly built, repaired, and kept. 
In the evening we came back to Gravesend. 

The -|f July, 1748. 

Brunn i fasta Kritbarget. A well in the solid 
chalk Between two of the chalk-pits at Northfleet there 
ran a wall or projection of [T. II. p. 49] bare chalk, 
which they had left untouched, from 8 to 9 fathoms wide. 
On both sides of this wall of chalk were great chalk-pits 
of 6 or 7 fathoms deep. The sides thereof were perpen- 
dicular. Near one side of this wall they had dug a well, 
en Brunn, down in the dense and solid chalk. This 
well was round, 3 feet 6 inches diameter, and steined 
with brick. I measured its depth, and found that from 
the surface of the ground down to the upper surface of 
the water in the well was 57 English feet. The water 
which was taken from it was very clear, and tasted as 
nice as the best Kall-vatten, spring- water, and was also 
very refreshing, latt druckit. Those who live here- 
abouts take from it all the water they require for cooking, 
family drinking, brewing, boiling, washing clothes, and 
for punch, tea, &c. Besides this, 8 horses and 4 cows 
were watered daily with the same well-water, for although 
the river Thames is close by, yet they do not give its 



* Rochester Bridge. For its history see Lambarde, Peramb. of Kent, 1576, 
4to, pp. 303-314; Stow, Annales, 1615, fol., p. 335 ; J. Harris, Hist, of Kent, 
1 7 19, fol., pp. 259-262, &c ; W. Wildash, Hist, of Rochester, 2nd Ed., 1817, 
8vo., pp. 35-49, with a beautiful engraving of Rochester Bridge, Castle, &c, 
from Strood Quay. From whence (p. 41) is gathered that " In what year 
the present stone bridge was begun cannot accurately be determined ; it was, 
however, compleated in- the fifteenth year of Richard II., 1392." [J. L.] 



406 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

water to horses or cattle, because it is very salt, as the 
Floodtide, Floden, refluxus maris, brings up salt water 
from the sea, and if the horses and cattle drink of this, 
it is said to make them ill. Although this is a dry 
summer, it has never been remarked that the water has 
diminished in this well. I asked whether the people who 
drank of it felt well after it ? They answered that better 
water cannot be than this, and that they never feel 
ill from it, or are in any way subject to illnesses more 
than other people. I now drank freely enough of it, 
without experiencing the least inconvenience afterwards. 
I have also during the whole of my visit [T. II. p. 50] to 
Gravesend, as well as elsewhere in England, never 
experienced in the least degree such an effect as some 
ascribe to the chalk water, kritvatnet, viz., that one 
unaccustomed to it will at first have diarrhoea until he 
becomes used to it. Most, and probably all the wells in 
Gravesend are dug in the bare hard chalk ; so that the 
water which I drank at meal-times and when I was 
thirsty the whole time I was there, was no other than 
that which had filtered through the chalk, silat sig 
genom Kritan, but I have not noticed the least 
change in the body in consequence. 

The U July, 1748. 
Strata Terra. On the south side of the Windmill 
Hill, Vaderqvarns backen, which lay near Gravesend, 
was a large pit from which they took sand. Here we 
saw what the hill on the south side consisted of, and 
measured the strata, which were as follows, beginning at 
the top : — Ft. ins. 

1. Svartmylla, soil 1 o 

2. Soil and a fine sand mingled together. These 
together produced a yellow colour 1 o 

3. A light-grey fine sand. In it were here and 
there ochre or rust-spots 1 6 






GRAVESEND. 407 

Ft. ins. 

4. Light ochre-coloured sand, which went in 
waves o oj 

5. Light-grey sand, same as No. 3 i 6 

6. A rust or dark ochre-coloured sand o i 

7. A fine, very light sand 2 6 

8. An ochre-coloured fine sand o^ 

9. Fine very light sand, the same as No. 7, 
which went down to the bottom of the pit, 
gropen, and who knows how far down ? 

"7 8 

Higher up on the hill was another sandpit, sandgrop, 

the bottom of which was higher than the top, Kullen 

[T. II. p. 51], of the foregoing. There the beds, 

hvarfven, were in this order : — Ft. ins. 

1. Svartmylla, Soil, about 1 foot, but a good 
deal mixed with a fine brick-coloured sand and 
small Pebblestones 1 o 

2. Pebblestones 2 6 

These Pebblestones were mostly the size of 

marbles, knackar, coal-black, round or oval, 
quite smooth, as though they had been ground or 
polished. When such an one was broken it was 
found to consist of bare flint. No angular ones 
were seen at all. 

3. An ochre-coloured fine sand 2 6 

4. A fine white sand o 3 

5. An ochre-coloured sand o 1 

6. A fine white sand 2 

7. The ochre-coloured sand 2 

8. The fine white sand o 2 

9. A grey clay falling into cubes, En gra i 
tarningar fallande lera oj 

10. The fine white sand o 2 

11. The grey clay o o| 



408 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Ft. ins. 

12. The ochre-coloured sand o 2 

13. The fine white sand o 1 

14. The grey clay o 1 

15. The fine white sand o oh 

16. The grey clay o 1 

17. The fine white sand o 3 

18. The ochre-coloured sand 1 

19. The fine white sand o 2 

20. The grey clay 1 

21. The fine white sand o 3 

22. The grey clay o 04- 

23. The fine white sand, full of rust spots 1 o 

24. [T. II. p. 52.] A light grey sand 1 

25. The fine white sand 9 

26. The ochre-coloured sand ,, o 1 

27. The fine white sand 6 o 

28. The ochre-coloured sand o 1 

29. The fine white sand o 6 

30. The light grey sand, full of rust spots 2 o 

31. The ochre-coloured sand ... 3 o 

32. Pebblestones, mingled with a light yellow 

sand 1 6 

33. The fine white sand 4 o 

27 4-6 
No more could be seen on account of the depth of 
the pit. Whether all these Strata came into their present 
shape at the sin-flood or on any other occasion, I leave 
others to divine. The whole of this high sand-hill, 
Sandbacken, does most probably stand upon solid chalk, 
because all the country round about consists of bare chalk 
with a thin crust of earth upon it.* 

* These sandpits may still be seen, but are now occupied by gentlemen's 
houses. [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 4O9 

Mosses. On the hardest chalk hills, it is 
true, some fine Hypnum sometimes appeared ; but we 
nevertheless remarked that this district around Gravesend 
was not especially favourable for mosses. There was no 
sign of these seen, though I looked carefully for them, 
either on the arable fields or inclosures which were sown 
with Clover, Sain Foin, &c, not even once on the reins 
by the hedges. 

The Woodlouse. Oniscus cauda obtusa integerrima. 
Linn. Fauna Svecica, 1256, occurs in multitudes every- 
where on the chalk, that it has as it were taken up its 
quarters in these places [T. II. p. 53.] When anyone 
came near it, it drew itself together, so that it lay per- 
fectly round, and looked like a very small, black, shining 
egg. This is larger than our ordinary Swedish wood- 
louse, grasuggor (plural). 

The U July, 1748. 

Phalcena subulicornis spirilinguis; alis superioribus sub- 
coeruleis, punctis sex rubris, inferioribus omnino rubris. 
Linn. Faun. Svec. 814 [Anthrocera Filipendulae, Burnet 
moth~\. This beautiful moth, Fiaril, which made quite a 
show with its beautiful red colour, had in particular taken 
up its abode in old Chalk pits overgrown with small 
bushes, where it flew in multitudes ; but outside them it 
was very rare. It flew very slowly, and not so fast as 
the other butterflies, Fiarilar. It sat very much on the 
flowers of Scabiosa pratensis hirsuta C. B. 

Aranea abdomine fusco ovato, linea exalbida pinnata, 
cauda bifurca, Linn. Faun. Svec, 1223 [A. labyrinthica] 
occurs here in multitudes, on the chalk hills as well as in 
other places. I saw it also in Essex. The accurate 
description which Linnaeus gave in his Fauna Svecica 
(he. cit.) of the manner in which it makes its house, bo, 
relieves me from the necessity of repeating this, because 



4IO KALM'S ENGLAND. 

this spider, Spinneln, makes it here in England almost 
in the same way. The difference is only this, that we 
found his subtle house and snare not only laid out over 
the grass, but also on the sides of sloping banks, backar, 
when the earth had fallen down ; and on these places he 
commonly chose his house, where some little pit of a 
hand's breadth [T. II. p. 54], and depth ran into the 
bank. There he made his cylindrical house down in the 
aforesaid hole, above which he spread out his net on all 
sides, that it looked like a great funnel, tratt, especially 
if there were some small bushes in the neighbourhood, 
on which he made fast some ends of his net. A fisher- 
man setting his bownets, Ryssior, cannot set them more 
cleverly. He had often made his house up in the bushes, 
where the threads of his net extended a couple of ells on 
every side from his cylindrical hole, so that no insect 
could come near the bush without being snared in the 
net. He himself always sat either at the bottom, or 
opening of his cylindrical hole, so like an open purse, 
ready to spring til vags, forward, as soon as there was 
any booty to win. When any insect was caught, he 
sprang at once upon it, and bit it several times in the 
head, then carried it into the entrance of his nest, where 
he ate it up. It was enjoyable to see what work he had 
with the Curculionidce beetles ; for as these are covered 
over with a hard shell he could next to never reduce 
them to order. As soon as they came on his net he 
seized them, but they were so clever that they drew in 
the feet and head. He then bit them well on the shell, 
but without effect ; then, as soon as he left them they 
again began to crawl, when he sprang up again and bit 
them : but equally in vain, so that he at last became 
tired, and let them go their way. He had always down 
in the bottom of his house a hole through which, when 
pressed by necessity, he could have his escape, and not 



GRAVESEND. 411 

be caught, when he always sought [T. II. p. 55], his 
safety behind some twig, or down in the earth, when any- 
one chased him, but directly one again became quiet, he 
1 crope,' krop, through the hole into his house, advanced 
to the opening to see whether any further danger was 
brewing, or if all was quiet. I sometimes tore their house 
asunder, when they commonly, after one or two days, 
had it ready again. 

Svin. In Kent the farmers generally have no more 
pigs than they require for their own use, so that they 
seldom come to sell any of them ; but in and near London, 
the Distillers keep a great many, often from 200 to 600 
head, which they feed with the lees, drank, and any 
thing that is over from the distillery: and after these 
animals have become fat enough, they are sold to the 
butcher at a great profit. 

In the same way, and with the same object, a great 
number of pigs are kept at starch factories, which are fed 
and fattened on the refuse of wheat, when the starch is 
manufactured. The house where the swine are kept, is 
cleaned and washed every day. 

Akrar, Hvete, Korn, etc. Amble fields, Wheat, 
Barley, etc. Several old and enterprising farmers in this 
district, told me that when the arable fields are well pre- 
pared one can get a return from wheat of 20 times the 
grain, and sometimes a little more, but the fields must 
then be well managed. Similarly they can get 20 times 
the grain from Barley, on a well-cultivated field. The 
kind of crop is changed yearly [T. II. p. 56] viz., when 
the fields have lain one summer fallow, they are sown 
either with wheat or turnips, after that with Beans, then 
with Barley, or Oats. The fallow fields are commonly 
ploughed three times during the summer ; if they go so 
far, they are ploughed 4 times, and harrowed and rolled 
between each ploughing. Chalk is also used here for 



412 KALM S ENGLAND. 

manure, on the ploughed fields, and when a field has once 
been manured with it, it is not necessary for them to 
manure it again for 10, 14 or more years. 

Pa styf lergrund sades Kritan vara skon. 

On a stiff clay soil the chalk was said to be good. 

Among other ways of manuring arable fields, it is 
reckoned as the best to fold sheep on them in the summer, 
during the night in a little narrow fold, so that they stand 
quite close together. One and another enterprising 
farmer said he had himself tried to sow wheat in rows, 
and ploughed up the earth with a horsebreak, a little 
neat plough which is drawn by one horse, between the 
rows ; but it had not turned out well for them. Never- 
theless, they thought that it might be done, otherwise the 
horsebreak is much used here to plough and clean away 
the weeds between the rows sown with Beans and Pease, 
since it lightens the labour very much. 

Turnips are also much sown here in Kent for sheep, 
swine, and oxen to feed and fatten them with. 

The Farmers said that they found the best time to 
sow wheat here, to be within one month before Michael- 
mas (after the Old Style) many, however, sow it one 
month after, but this plan is not held to be so good. 

AngS-skotseL The management of Grass-land, Sain 
Foin, Clover, &c. Most of their grass fields in this district 
are sown with some [T. II. p. 57], particular kinds of 
hay, such as St. Foin, Clover, Tares, Vicia, Lucerne, &c. 

Sain Foin is said to thrive very well on the chalk hills, 
Kritbackar, which we also found to be everywhere 
evident. For 30 years back they had not known so much 
of it used as now. They learned to use it from France. 
Sain Foin is an excellent food for horses, but for cows it 
is, when dried, not so good as good hay. When it has 
once been sown, it can sometimes stand for 16 or more 



GRAVESEND. 4I3 

years before it need be sown again. It is either given to 
the horses whole, as it is, or it is chopped up in a chaff 
cutter, i en hackelse-kista, stalk and all, very small, 
and so is mixed with oats, baiting, agnar, beans or 
pease, and is afterwards given to the horses, who thrive 
perfectly well on it. They cannot cut the Sain Foin here 
more than once in the summer. Clover is also very much 
sown here, but it does not last so long as Sain Foin, 
because it must be sown with wheat or something else, 
and a parcel of land is sown time about. They hardly 
ever carry more than two cuts, slattar, before it is sown 
again, nor is it worth while to let it stand longer, for 
when one has cut it two years or two summers, it loses, 
tyner af,* so much after that that they can scarcely go on 
to it with the scythe, lian, therefore when they have mown 
it two summers, and very often only one, the field is 
ploughed up anew, and sown with Clover, but although 
it cannot stand long before it must be sown again, yet it 
saves a great deal of inconvenience, above all in this 
district, where no ordinary kind of grass will [T. II. p. 58] 
thrive ; because this Clover, the first summer it is mown, 
gives such a very great abundance of a rich and good 
hay. As a food for horses it is most excellent, but not so 
for cows, although it is true they milk a good deal 
from it, yet the milk acquires some particular flavour in 
consequence, and is not nearly so agreeable as when the 
cows are fed with good grass. One can particularly 
easily recognise this Clover-smack in the milk, if the cows 
are allowed to go out in the summer and eat the green 
clover. At that time one must take care that they are 
not allowed to eat as much as they like of it, for the 
clover tastes so nice to them, that they cannot stop, but 



* ' Tine, to lose v. Jameson. Tine, tyne, and Suppt. Tine.' J. T. 
Brockett. Gloss, of A r . country words. Newcastle, 1846. [J. L.] 



414 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

sometimes they eat it so greedily that they swell up and 
die. The Clover has in one respect the advantage over 
other kinds of hay, that it can commonly be cut twice in 
the summer. Some have also now begun to sow Lucerne, 
but it is still uncertain how it will succeed. [This is a very 
interesting notice]. 

Tares. (Vicia vulgaris Sativa, J. Bauhin) are also 
sown here by some for fodder, and the Farmers knew 
scarcely any kind of hay on which the cows give so much 
milk, and when they have eaten it, especially if it is green, 
the milk also has a nice flavour ; nevertheless, it is found 
that cows give the best flavoured milk when they eat 
good grass. In very many places here in England they 
mow their meadows twice in the summer, sometimes 
also three times, but they seldom drive the cattle in to 
feed there, either in Spring or Autumn. Nevertheless, the 
farmers said that the hay of the aftermath, af den senare 
slatten, was not so good as that of the first crop. 

[T. II. p. 59]. Bonor. Beans are much sown here, 
and used as food for horses and swine. They also give 
them pease for food. 

Krita. Chalk. It is not known to me whether chalk 
is used for any purpose in gardens, tr&gardar, but in 
hop-grounds hummel-g&rdar, it is used by some as a 
manure, when it is first mixed with other manure. 

Ost, Smdr, etc. Cheese, Butter, etc. 

Nearly every County (Province) in England has some- 
thing special, which it produces more plentifully and of 
better quality than any other county. Thus Kent commonly 
yields better hops and cherries than other counties ; Hert- 
fordshire better flour, hvetmjol; Cheshire and Gloucester- 
shire better cheese; Suffolk better butter, etc. In con- 
nection with this, it is remarkable that the county which 
gives the best butter, cannot produce such good cheese, 



GRAVESEND. 415 

and vice versd. The reason seems to be that for either 
butter or cheese the best and fattest milk is required. 
Where they make butter they also make cheese, but they 
use first to churn the butter from the milk, and after- 
wards they make cheese from the same, which cannot be 
good, because most of the quality, masta kraften, of 
the milk is already taken away. 

Hag. Rye is also sown here in Kent by some who 
partly sell it, partly use to mix it with wheat, to grind 
and make bread of it. The straw, Halmen, is sold to 
Watermen, Roddare, and those who go backwards and 
forwards with boats and yachts to and from London, who 
use to lay [T. II. p. 60] the straw on the bottom of the 
boat, and on the seat, so that passengers may sit so 
much better, and not soil or dirty their clothes. 

The U July, 1748. 

To-day I went with the Tilt-boat to London to hear 
whether the Captain and the ship I was to cross to 
America in at once might not be ready for the voyage ; 
and in the afternoon returned with one of the Tilt-boats 
down to Gravesend. 

Kritans nytta. The use of the Chalk. 

On the fields which lie in the neighbourhood around 
Gravesend they use very seldom or next to never to 
manure their ploughed fields with chalk ; because the 
soil which is there mostly a mould is already so loose 
and dry that it ought not to be any looser : but farther 
away from thence where they have wet, low-lying arable 
fields, consisting of clay, they manure them from time to 
time with chalk. All the agricultural labourers, akerman, 
and Farmers hereabout, agree unanimously in this, that 
the principal use of chalk as a manure on a ploughed 
field, is on such land as consists of stiff clay and cold soil, 



41 6 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

for it unbinds the clay, and makes it fit to produce crops 
in abundance. It is also on this account that the Farmers 
in Essex where there is no chalk to be found, even those 
who live a long way off, come hither down to the banks 
of the Thames, where there are chalk-pits, to buy here 
many loads of chalk, and carry them a long way over 
land [T. II. p. 61], to manure their arable fields with it, 
when they consist of a stiff clay. Those who live farther 
in Kent, and have a similar clay soil, improve it in the 
same manner, with chalk. In sandy soil chalk is said 
not to be of any use. 

Thus those who live both near and far away from here, 
avail themselves of this chalk for manure for their arable 
and grass lands. From Essex, Middlesex, Surrey, and 
very many other places in the English Provinces which 
either lie near the Thames, or else on the sea coast, all 
kinds of provisions, such as wheat, barley, oats, butter, 
cheese, &c, are carried to London in small vessels. 
When the same small vessels return home from London, 
they will not go back empty ; therefore they come to 
some one of these chalk pits, ballast their vessel with 
chalk which they can have here for a small price, and 
carry it home, where they either burn it first to lime, 
before they lay it on the arable fields, or lay it on the 
fields as they get it. Foreign ships also on the home- 
ward voyage often take from hence a great quantity of 
chalk with them. 

The bases of the walls and banks on both sides of the 
Thames are made of this chalk, partly because it binds 
well, and partly because they have no other kind of stones. 
It is arranged there both in layer and smaller pieces. 
[T. II. p. 62]. The outhouses in different places were 
built of bare Chalk. The principal use to which chalk 
has been put, is, that in several places, they burn lime of 
it— of which more a little farther on. 



GRAVESEND. 417 

In the Comedy House in London, the rope-dancers, 
LincLansare,* and those who walked on the rope and 
lines, used to rub their shoes thickly underneath with 
chalk, so that they should not slip. The rope also was 
chalked to a certain extent. 

The |4 July, 1748. 

Notes on the Chalk and Chalk hills at Northfleet, and 
other places in Kent, 

Northfleet is a village which lies a short English 
mile West of Gravesend, on the same side of the 
river. Here, and all the way to Gravesend, all the 
hilly banks of the river Thames, and the land around, 
consist of bare chalk, only that a thin soil lies upon it. 
Here, near the banks of the Thames, one great chalk pit 
succeeds another, both of considerable extent, and of 
great depth. These chalk pits are for the most part 
quadrangular, and their sides are perpendicular. The 
depth of these pits from the upper surface down to the 
bottom is 8, 12, 15, or more, fathoms. They do not 
belong to one and the same person, but there are several 
who have shares therein, who are gentlemen living in 
London, but who have, nevertheless, people here who live 
near the chalk pits [T. II. p. 63], to see that the work 
goes on well and properly. 

That the chalk has been quarried for many centuries 
back, can be concluded, besides what one has from old 
historians, also, partly from the number of the pits, and 
their very great size and depth, partly from the con- 
siderable number of old pits, which are now to a great 
extent refilled with rubbish and overgrown with all kinds 



*In the Prologue written by Dr. Johnson, and spoken by Garrick at the 
opening of the Theatre Royal, Urury Lane, 1747, line 46, « Here Hunt may 
box, or Mahomet may dance' refers to a celebrated rope-dancer. [J. L ] 

2E 



41 8 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

of trees and weeds. Some of the chalk-pits where they 
were now breaking up and burning the chalk were near 
the river ; others again some musket-shots therefrom ; 
for they had taken away all the more suitable chalk from 
nearer the river so that there was nothing left, but high 
heaps, full of the earth they had sifted when they took 
the chalk, and the soil which had lain upon it together 
with pieces of flint, chalk, bricks, and other rubbish. In 
these chalk-pits we had a very good chance of seeing how 
thick the vegetable soil and the mould is which lies upon 
the chalk, as well as all the various beds and strata of 
chalk, with what is found in it, etc. At the top of the 
pits, and upon the chalk, lay the vegetable mould or soil, 
matjorden eller svartmyllan, commonly to a depth 
of 15 inches, mixed with small pieces of flint, which 
resembled those which lie on the open plain, and the 
sun has bleached and made white. The colour of this 
soil was brown. Yet the soil was not everywhere along 
the top of the pit the same thickness ; for just [T. II. 
p. 64] as it was 15 inches thick, so it went down in a 
bow or curve to 4 feet perpendicular depth. Neither 
was the breadth of such a sinus, vigg, everywhere the 
same, for sometimes the upper part was 10 or 12 feet 
wide, sometimes scarcely 2 feet. The depth of such 
hollows was also unequal — now more, now less ; yet the 
soil was commonly, beyond and above these pockets, 
15 inches. 

Below that came the chalk. It was not quite pure at 
the top, but to some small extent mixed with the brown 
earth for a thickness of 3 feet. 

This mixed chalk thus looked dirty, and was also 
charged with pieces of flint and full of small Pebblestones, 
which, both flints as well as pebbles, exactly resembled 
those which lay up to the day and were bleached by the 
sun, which seems to indicate that these parts of the chalk, 



GRAVESEND. 4I9 

which are now 4 feet perpendicularly under the upper 
surface of the soil-crust, jordskarpen, formerly lay up 
to the day and the sun. We dug into the bank and found 
everywhere such bleached flint fragments and Pebblestones. 
When these bleached flint fragments which lay in the 
bank were broken, they often looked inwardly like flints 
which have been in the fire, but nevertheless, have not 
been so hard burned as to have run to glass. * 

At times were found at 8 feet perpendicular depth 
in the chalk itself large spots or pipes, flackar, of 
[T. II. p. 65] one to two feet diameter, which consisted 
entirely and solely of such brown mould as lies on the 
surface, and is the same as we call svartmylla. In 
these "pipes " as well as in the chalk around them, were 
plenty of small Pebblestones. We found similar pipes in 
many chalk pits. In some places they were obliged to 
throw away the vegetable soil, flint fragments, Pebble- 
stones, and other mixed earth, for a depth of 6 feet 
perpendicularly, before they could get pure chalk to use 
for lime burning. 

I will now give the notes I made in one and another 
of the chalk-pits in order that I might see how the beds 
lay in them, and what the walls consisted of. In one of 
these Chalkpits, the nearest to Gravesend, the strata were 
in this order : — ft. in. 

1. Highest, and on the chalk was soil, Svart- 
mylla eller matjord, which here in colour was 
mostly brown, about one foot thick more or less ... 1 o 

It was not everywhere of the same thickness, 
but sometimes went down in curves or pockets, 
viggar eller kilar, in the chalk to a depth of 
two, three and four feet, but unequal breadths. 

2. Next to that a chalky mixture of Pebblestones 

* Of course this is the effect of oxidation. [J. L.] 



420 KALM S ENGLAND. 

Ft. in. 

and some of the aforenamed soil, Svartmylla, 

principally chalk — one foot, more or less I o 

This chalk was somewhat loose and not so 
[T. II. p. 66] hard as the perpendicular walls of 
the chalkpit. 

3. Afterwards came a nearly horizontal stratum 
of bare roots, about £ to I inch thick. It consisted 
of nothing but small roots, the largest of which 
were the size of a quill pen ; but one could not 
distinguish what kind of roots these had been. 
They were not particularly rotten. I imagine that 
they were fine roots of Hawthorn, Hagtorn, 
which had run so far down, and then they had 
found under this stratum a harder chalk, and 
could not go farther down in the earth, but after- 
wards ran horizontally upon the same, and con- 
sequently time after time had formed this. What 
made me think so was (1) that the chalk which 
lies immediately under is very hard ; (2) That I 
found fresh and growing Hawthorn roots, of the 
same thickness as recently named, which ran just 
horizontally among the other roots in this stratum. 

4. Hard chalk, 3 fathoms. What it was like 
further down I cannot say, because the fallen 
gravel and mould, grus och mullen, prevented 
more being seen below. 

In one of the Chalk-pits which were close to Northfleet 
Church, the strata of the chalk were in this order : — 

ft. in. 

i. The soil and vegetable earth, Jordskarpan 
och matjorden 1 o 

2. [T. II. p. 67.] Hard Chalk about 58-60 feet. 60 o 
Pieces of flint were here and there mixed in it. 

3. A stratum of bare flints, laid quite close 
together — 3 to 6 inches thick o 6 



GRAVESEND. 42 1 

Ft. in. 

4. The hard chalk 9 o 

5. A Stratum of flints o i£ 

The flints here also lay quite close together, 

but the pieces of flint were very thin, like small 
thin tablets. There often lay a couple of such 
thin bits on one another. 

6. The hard chalk 18 o 

7. A stratum of flints exactly like No. 3. 

8. The hard chalk 4 o 

And who knows how far down, because the 

bottom of the pit prevented me from seeing deeper. 

92 7i 
Note— In the chalk bed, krithvarfen, below No. 3. 

some flints only appeared here and there. 

In another of these large chalk-pits nearer to Gravesend 

the strata were thus : — 

ft. in. 

1. On the top, soil, Svartmylla, about 1 o 

but mingled with chalk, that the colour of this 
earth was very like bricks. 

2. Chalk 12 o 

3. A stratum of flints, quite horizontal, as if 

they had been designedly laid level o 6 

4. Chalk about 3° ° 

5. [T. II. p. 68.] A stratum of flints, arranged 

in the same way as No. 3 o 6 

6. Chalk 3 o 

7. A bed of flints like the preceding o 6. 

8. Chalk one fathom and perhaps much deeper, 
because the fallen earth prevented me from seeing 



more 



6 o 



53 6 
Obs. 1. — That these strata of flints consisted only of 



422 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

one single bed of flint, and not of many piled one on the 
other. It seemed as if there had been a flat, even, and 
level plain of bare chalk, whereon someone had spread a 
stratum of single flints so close together that one touched 
another, and then laid chalk on it. 

Obs. 2. — The flint which lay in these beds was in some 
places thicker, up to 6 inches thickness, in other places 
thinner, even to a thin plate of J-inch thick. Between 
these strata of flint there seldom appeared any flints in 
the chalk itself, only some isolated ones here and there. 
In the chalk, but very seldom, was some little Pebble- 
stone, sometimes oval, sometimes spherical. 

In the afore-named strata of Flints, the flint is sur- 
rounded by chalk quite close, as if the chalk had been 
soft, blot, when the flint came to sink down in the chalk, 
and afterwards some more soft chalk came to lie thereon. 
[T. II. p. 69.] These strata or beds of flints among the 
chalk are peculiar. The flint stones lie here as horizon- 
tal and as close to one another as if they had been 
designedly thus arranged by human hands. How did 
the Flint stone first come there in such an order ? 

The whole hill, backen, near the river Thames 
west of Gravesend, consisted of bare chalk ; but at its 
base, even with the water surface when the flood-tide is 
highest, was such a stratum of flints as just described, 
which lay in the same way, quite horizontal, as if it had 
been arranged on the dead level. The pieces of flint 
lay here entirely in the same plane. This flint stratum 
could be seen at low water for nearly half an English 
mile along the river bank. 

The colour of these perpendicular walls in the chalk- 
pits is, for the most part, snow-white. In other places it 
had acquired a yellowish tint, viz. : where there was soil 
and trees above, from which some wet occasionally 
trickled down and ran over the sides. In the places 



GRAVESEND. 423 

where there are many lime-kilns, kalkugnar, the per- 
pendicular walls are, from the quantity of coal-smoke, 
nearly black. In some places where the chalk had newly 
fallen down, it was full of black specks, the size of a small 
pin's head, just like as if a Lichen had begun [T. II. p. 
7°] to grow there. In one piece and another were large 
rust spots, which in some places ate into it to some 
extent. 

The perpendicular sides or walls of the chalk-pits are 
commonly full of fissures, springor, which go some- 
times perpendicularly, sometimes horizontally, and cross 
each other at right angles. The width of such a fissure 
is not always the same, being sometimes so narrow that 
one can scarcely thrust in the blade of a knife, but some- 
times they are wider, that one can easily get in a finger. 
I cannot just say of which kind, perpendicular or horizon- 
tal, there occur most, yet the horizontal seem to be the 
most numerous. When I call the fissures perpendicular, 
it is not to be understood that they were so according to 
mathematical rules, but they stood sometimes exactly 
perpendicular, sometimes nearly so. The same remark 
applies to the word horizontal. 

In the old chalk pits they had in some places dug 
large holes like caves, hvalf. Those who lived close by 
said that they thought they had been in former times 
used as cellars, kallare. The cave within had not taken 
any particular injury from time, nor had the walls ; yet it 
seemed that pieces of chalk had from time to time fallen 
down from the roof. The chalk in these old cellar walls , 
which were perpendicular, was full of fissures which ran 
both perpendicularly and horizontally, and even obliquely, 
I mean [T. II. p. 71] by oblique that which is a medium 
between perpendicular and horizontal, or tolerably near 
thereto. These oblique fissures were everywhere very 
few, and not nearly so many as the others. The distance 



424 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

between the horizontal fissures was nothing less than the 
same throughout ; for when the one stratum, if I may so 
call it, was thick, the next was often quite thin. 

In the old cellars the distance between the planes of 
the bedding was mostly 6 inches, sometimes, however, 
more ; often 1 inch, and sometimes only half an inch, or 
a narrow strip, en SHial rimsa. Nor was one and the 
same stratum always of the same width between the 
fissures ; for although it commonly maintains the same 
width, it sometimes happens that when it has been for a 
time of one and the same width, it then by degrees grows 
narrower, and at last terminates in an angulum acutis- 
simum. Neither did the fissures always behave the same 
way: for now a fissure might run exactly horizontal, as 
far as the face of the chalk-pit went ; now, just as it had 
gone for a little horizontally, it stood obliquely, and 
another horizontal fissure began in it, 1, 2, 3, or more 
inches, either above or below, and so on. 

When one gently drew out a piece of chalk, which lay 
between two horizontal fissures both [T. II. p. 72] the 
under and upper sides thereof were a planum, or plane 
without lumps or projections, and commonly of a little 
darker colour than the chalk within, a sign that air and 
water had entered the fissure. The coal-smoke which 
comes from the limekilns, which occur in nearly all these 
pits, is however able to have caused the same dark colour. 
After running for some time straight as a line horizon- 
tally, it bent off and ran obliquely. 

Among the horizontal joints or bedding-planes, there 
were commonly some master-joints, which mostly ran the 
whole way across the face of the quarry, and were larger 
than the others. The distance between them varied — 2, 
3, or 4 feet, seldom less than 18 inches, but the space 
between them was often divided by small horizontal 
fissures. 



GRAVESEND. 425 

Neither are the perpendicular fissures of the same 
description throughout, for sometimes they go in a 
straight line right up the wall. Sometimes when they 
have gone a certain distance, they stand obliquely, and 
then another begins a little on either side, and runs up in 
a straight line. The width of such a fissure behaves in the 
same way, as has been said of the horizontal ones. The 
distance between the perpendicular fissures, as with the 
horizontal ones, is not uniform, but sometimes wide, 
sometimes narrow, often only i inch and even less ; but 
sometimes 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 feet wide. 

[T. II. p. 73]. These perpendicular fissures, or 
'joints,' commonly preserved a certain direction, for they 
mostly ran from E. to W. and from N. to S., or about, 
it might be, a slight curve from W. to N. and E. to S., as 
well as from S. to W., and from N. to E. But this was 
so slight, that it could scarcely be noticed. Yet there 
were at times some seen which departed from this rule, and 
ran for example from S.E, to N.W., from N.E. to S.W., 
and so on. Nevertheless, this curvature happened seldom 
enough. They commonly lay, as was first noted, and this 
in chalk pits, which were a whole English mile from each 
other. 

When pieces of chalk were drawn out of the rock, 
their sides facing the perpendicular fissures were quite 
plane, and as smooth as if they had been cut even with a 
knife drawn along a rule. 

The chalk walls which have been longer exposed, 
and on which both the sun, air, and rain have operated 
longer, are far more full of perpendicular, horizontal and 
oblique fissures, than that which is newly quarried. At 
least the former could be more plainly seen : for an old 
chalk, which has been longer exposed, is nearly cracked 
all to pieces, while in a newly fractured surface one can 
with difficulty see any cracks. 



426 , KALM'S ENGLAND. 

Sometimes in the larger fissures it is seen that thin 
and flat bits of flint, like thin pieces of Schist [T. II. p. 74], 
had filled up the fissure. Can it have been formed there, 
after the chalk had been so cracked to pieces ? Thus, it 
is evident, that chalk rocks have their fashion or quality 
of cracking to pieces, just as * granites,' grabargen, 
with us. 

When the chalk has lain its time in the open air, 
under sun and rain, there are often very small holes, on 
the upper surface, so that it becomes as it were cellular. 
The depth of the holes is, however, seldom over 1 or 2 
geom. lin^-jV or £ inch. 

The flints which were found in the chalk had no 
certain shape, but were nearly all formless pieces, just as 
when one smelts metals or some ore, and lets it run on 
the ground in any chance form. The largest pieces of 
flint are about 2 feet long, though one seldom sees such 
large ones. Most are about 9 to 12 inches. Nearly all 
flints, here in the chalk pits, are black ; though some 
lightish pieces occur here and there. 

On the banks of the river Thames there lie in some 
places plenty of flints, but although the strand for six hours 
stands under water, and for the next six in the open air, 
still they have not suffered any other change on that 
account, than that some are externally of a white colour, 
or also sometimes slightly inclining to blue, such as flints 
are wont to be when they lie on the hills in the open air, 
and the sun shines on them and bleaches them. Other- 
wise most of the flints here were as clean and black, when 
they were broken, as those which are newly taken out of 
the solid chalk. [T. II. p. 75]. The flints sometimes 
had on their surface, as it were, a rust-eaten or ochre- 
coloured crust, and in such flints rust-eaten places often 
occurred. The figures were such as before described, as 
those assumed by an ore, smelted and run on the earth 



GRAVESEND. 427 

as it would. The pieces were commonly oblong, and at 
the same time full of lumps and irregularities. They 
also frequently resembled fingers, feet, pegs, human 
bodies, part of a hand, a goat's-horn, a small calf-horn, 
etc. Inside they were commonly black, but also fre- 
quently more or less full of lighter spots. 

The Heterogenea and foreign or less common things, 
which are found in these chalk pits, either in the chalk 
or the flints are in particular these : — 

1. Stralflinta, as I call a kind of stone which lies 
like a sponge upon the flint, is broad and flat, consists 
of parallel threads hard-petrified, which run perpendicu- 
larly to its flat side, exactly like the Amiant-like 
Str&lgips, [fibrous gypsum] in Prof. Wallerius's Mineral- 
ogia* p. 55, only that this is somewhat denser. In colour 
it is white or light grey. Still it is a kind of flint, because 
it strikes fire with steel. It lies not only in the flint, but 
also sometimes in the chalk.f 

2. Musselskal, Bivalve shells, occur firmly fixed in 
corresponding cavities in the flint, as well as in the 
chalk. 

3. Crystaller, Crystals. Often when one breaks a 
flint to pieces, there are found inside small rock crystals, 
barg crystaller [T. II. p. 76] closely packed. There 
is generally an empty space left with them. 

4. Klotrunda flintbitar, or the so-called chalk- 
eggs. These are frequently found firmly united to the 
flint. Externally such a chalk, or, more strictly, flint- 
egg, is covered with a white chalky crust of the thickness 



* Wallerius (Johann Gottschalk). Mineralogia. Eller Mineral Ricket 
indelt och beskrifvit af J. G. W. Stockholm, 1747, 8vo. The first of a long 
series of Mineralogies. Q. L.] 

f Stralflinta. Thin plates ox scales of fish exhibiting a transverse fibrous 
structure are common, especially in fragments, in the upper chalk, and in the 
flints. [J. L.] 



428 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

of a half line=^ 4 inch ; but when it is broken one gets to 
see that it consists mostly of bare flint. They are 
generally spherical, klotrimda, but sometimes slightly 
oblong, sometimes they are quite solid and bare flint, 
but sometimes hollow, when in the centre there lies a 
little chalk, either attached to the flint, or loose, so that 
when it is shaken, the chalk is heard striking against the 
sides within. From such internal space there is no hole 
or passage to the outer periphery, but the flint is solid 
round about the hollow space within. These are as 
small as swallows' eggs or bullets, and also as large as 
cannon balls. 

In some chalk pits the men used to sit and flake the 
flints there gathered into small pieces to sell to travellers 
and others to strike fire with. 

[Omit 8 lines on p. 76 and 5 lines on p. yy.] 

[T. II. p. yy.~\ Some old chalk pits are now left 
desert, and stand full-grown with all kinds of trees and 
weeds. Among the trees are particularly Privets, 
Viburnum, Guelder-Rose or Wayfaring tree, Thorn- 
bushes, Cornus fczm. [Cornus sanguinea, Cornel'] in very 
great abundance. 

[Omit 4 lines.] 

When the sun shines, while one remains in a chalk- 
pit, it costs the eyes a good deal to look at the white 
chalk. 

Rabbits, Caniner, had their holes and dwellings in 
several places in the loose fallen earth and chalk, where 
in the evenings they are seen in great numbers. 

Tattingar. Sparrows had their nests in the excavated 
caves. 

In one of the chalk-pits was laid out a beautiful 
orchard full of different fruit trees, together with all 
kinds of kitchen garden plants and vegetables. 

In the chalk-pits near Rochester which lay ij Swedish 



GRAVESEND. 429 

mile from those just described at Northfleet, the chalk- 
walls had entirely the same structure as those described 
above, viz., that they went in similar horizontal [T. II. 
p. 78] and perpendicular fissures, contained the same 
heterogenea, had precisely similar strata of flints, laid close 
to one another, and i, 2, 3, or more fathoms of chalk 
between every such stratum and the next. In the chalk 
between these strata there were also some flints here and 
there. 

How they burn lime from chalk at Northfleet and elsewhere 
in Kent. 

I have before remarked that all the country around 
Northfleet consists of bare chalk, in which they have dug 
deep pits and taken out of them both chalk and flint, partly 
for sale abroad, and partly to burn lime from the chalk. 
The method of burning lime here practised is the fol- 
lowing, which I will relate in the order in which it 
happens : — 

They break off with a crowbar large pieces from the 
sides of the chalk-pits, and cause them to fall down to 
the bottom of the pit. They begin this quarrying at the 
top of the pit, after they have first removed the mould and 
earth, which lies upon the chalk, and so continue down- 
wards right to the bottom ; but not more at one time 
than will suffice for burning for one or two weeks. All 
the other walls in the chalk-pits which they have left of! 
quarrying are mostly perpendicular, but the walls where 
they are working are sloping enough, so that they can go 
up and down the same frequently. The pieces which 
have fallen down, and are still very large, are hewn 
asunder into smaller pieces with an iron pickaxe. 

[T. II. p. 79.] After that, the chalk, so reduced into 
somewhat smaller pieces, is laid on a lump or block 
of chalk which they have made for themselves, and with 



43° KALM'S ENGLAND. 

a pick, which is like such as we use to pick millstones 
with, only that the edge of the pick does not go parallel 
with the handle, but at right angles to or across the 
shaft, as in a scarf-cutter, skarf-yxa, they hack the chalk 
into still smaller pieces, so that the largest bits of chalk 
are seldom larger than a clenched fist. The pick is about 
two inches wide in the blade. The flints which are 
found among the chalk are collected and laid in a heap, 
to be preserved and afterwards sold. They next have a 
' Riddle,' ' Fiddle,' or sieve, et Bissel, of about 30 
inches diameter, whose bottom is made of small iron 
wires, the 'bars' and 'slashers,' bound round with very 
fine iron wires, or ' whippings.' These iron wires, i.e. 
the bars and slashers, are set as usual in the sieve so as 
to make it full of four-sided holes or squares. Every 
side of such a square mesh is ij, if, or 2 inches. This 
1 Riddle ' or ' Fiddle,' Rissel, was held by one person, 
while another with a shovel cast the chopped-up chalk 
therein, when it always happened that the pieces which 
were smaller than the hole in the bottom of the fiddle 
passed through and fell out, together with the chalk 
which in the process of chopping had been reduced to 
powder. The pieces of chalk which were left in the 
fiddle were cast out into baskets, which were carried to 
the limekilns to be burned to lime ; but the smaller 
pieces which fell out through the holes of the fiddle 
[T. II. p. 80], together with the fine meal, was left lying 
on the bank, and was not carried to the lime kiln. The 
reason why they will not use this is said to be that it 
puts out the fire in the limekiln because it is so fine. 

Skafveln, the shovel which they took up the bits of 
chalk with, was slightly concave, exactly like such shovels 
as are used in granaries and salt-houses, only that it was 
somewhat broader. The breadth, or latititdo transversa, 
of the shovel blade was 22 inches; latitudo perpendicu- 



GRAVESEND. 43 1 

laris, or the length, was 10 or n inches. At the bottom 
and round the edge it was shod with iron. 

Korgarna, the baskets which the small pieces of 
chalk were cast into, and in which they carried the chalk 
to the limekilns, were made of willow boughs or shoots, 
in shape like a large Goblet, or Beaker, Focal eller 
Bagare. Their height was 13 inches, the diameter at 
the base rather over 6 inches, the diameter at the top 15 
to 16 inches. 

After they had filled the baskets, of which there was 
here a very large number, they were carried by women 
to the limekilns, where there was a carl who received the 
basket, cast or tipped the bits of chalk out of it over or 
on to the limekiln, yet in such a manner that he slung 
them with such direction that they did not come to lie on 
each other, but were spread evenly about beside each 
other. 

The limekiln was built of brick. When it was empty, 
and one looked down into it from above, it was in shape 
like a beaker [T. II. p. 81] or goblet, as round as if it 
had been drawn with a pair of compasses, but narrow at 
the bottom and widening upwards. The internal diameter 
of the kiln at the base or bottom was 66 to 72 inches, 
but at the top at the surface of the ground the diameter 
was 13 feet, some a little more. The perpendicular 
height inside from the bottom to the highest rim, 22 feet 
6 inches. Down at the bottom the kiln was externally 
built perpendicular for a height of 6 or 7 feet, above 
which level its shape afterwards on all sides looked like a 
parasol. They had there laid horizontally on the top of 
the perpendicular wall, beams, or balks, on which they 
had set other smaller balks, which all sloped outwards 
like a parasol. Immediately within the balks were laid 
large lumps of chalk, and immediately inside these the 
brick wall of the limekiln, which leant against and was 



43 2 KALMS ENGLAND. 

supported as it widened out by these closely-laid, parasol- 
shaped balks, or struts ; for if these struts had not been 
there, the upper part of the kiln would not have been 
able to stand. These balks so arranged were fastened by 
their upper ends to other horizontal balks, which were 
shaped into a frame adapted for that special purpose, 
whereon a platform was made on which they could go 
and walk around the kiln, and carry chalk, coals, and any- 
thing that was necessary for the same. Down at the 
bottom the limekiln had four openings, or mouths, Ugns- 
munnar, through which the fully burned chalk could 
be taken out, and by means [T. II. p. 82] of which the 
wind always found access to play in and heat up the 
coal in the kiln, so that there was always a strong 
draught. 

Each kiln-mouth, Ugnsmun, which was square, was 
30 inches broad and 2 feet high. The perpendicular 
part, i.e., the lower part of the kiln, was externally an 
octangle in this way, that starting with one of the sides 
that stood perpendicular, the oven's mouth was in the 
next, in which the upper part of the side stood quite as 
far out as the perpendicular face, but afterwards went 
more and more in, the lower it got, till at the bottom of 
this inwardly sloping part was the kiln-mouth. They 
had in most cases built a screen of boards round the 
kiln with two entrances, one on each side, to prevent 
the too excessive blasts of the wind. This screen was on 
the outside of the kiln, for on the other side, the bank 
with its perpendicular sides, against which the lime-kiln 
was built, performed the same service. The bottom of 
the bank where they were now getting the chalk was 
horizontal with the upper surface or the edges of the 
lime-kiln. When they burn chalk to lime in this kiln, 
dry brushwood or sticks are laid on the bottom to light 
the fire with, then a thin stratum of coal, then a stratum 



GRAVESEND. 433 

of the broken pieces of chalk, again a thin stratum of 
coal and so alternately until the goblet or beaker-shaped 
kiln is full. The fire is lighted at the bottom, and spreads 
itself more and more upwards according as the coal down 
below becomes burnt up. [T. II. p. 83.] The chalk is 
generally burned to lime, although it holds together in 
the same bits as it was when it was put in. 

As the chalk becomes full-burnt, the pieces are taken 
out down below, at the bottom of the kiln, through the 
above described kiln-mouths, when the chalk which is 
above, successively sinks down into its place. And that this 
may proceed with more certainty, they have a long either 
single or forked fire-poker, which they thrust here and 
there down into the kiln from above, and stir about, when 
the bits of chalk sink down all the faster. The bits of 
chalk are shovelled out of the fire with the above described 
broad shovel. The fuel they use for this purpose is only 
and solely coal, except that when they first light up a kiln 
they have at the bottom fagots to light up with, because 
the coal will not otherwise so easily take fire. A little 
way from the kiln lie large heaps of coals, but before 
they are used they are broken with an iron hammer into 
quite small pieces, little larger than the end of a little 
finger. A great part is as small as dust. The carls give 
as a reason that they burn better and more evenly in 
consequence, and do not become caked because a thin 
bed of such is sufficient to heat up and burn the stratum 
of bits of chalk which lies upon or under it. As soon as 
the carl has broken into very small pieces as much coal 
as he considers to be sufficient for a certain number of bas- 
kets, he takes some water in a bucket and throws it [T. II. 
p. 84] thinly over the same fine-broken coal, partly by this 
means to prevent them from being blown away by the 
wind, since they are now in part like mould, partly also 
because they will heat stronger when they come thus into 

2F 



434 KALM S ENGLAND. 

the kiln. Thus prepared the coal is carried by women 
in the above-described baskets, and is set around the 
sides of the kiln, where the carl takes them, and throws 
them into the kiln as he finds necessary. 

No one must think that the beds or strata of these 
coals in the lime-kiln are so thick that when they have 
laid such a bed upon the white chalk, the chalk can be no 
more seen, but only black coal. By no means, these coal 
beds are both thin and very porous. Two or three or four 
such baskets, as have been before described with the 
chalk, suffice for a stratum up at the highest edge of the 
kiln, where it is widest. In the same way it is true of 
the stratum of chalk, that the bits of chalk do not lie so 
close, but that one can nearly everywhere see the bits of 
coal between them. Someone may perhaps think that 
the lime which is burned from this chalk must lose much 
of its white colour, by reason of the black coal which is 
mixed alternately with it ; or also may enquire whether the 
coal is afterwards separated from the bits of chalk ? 
The answer is that the coal is not separated from the 
bits of chalk after the chalk is burned, nor would it admit 
of this, because, as was said before, the bits of coal are 
quite small, and a great part [T. II. p. 85], of them like 
mere dust, but they remain and are blended together with 
the chalk ; but it ought to be noted that when the coals are 
burned they have lost all their black colour, and acquired 
a light one, so that the chalk as far as regards its white- 
ness takes very little harm on that account. Besides 
that, they assert that a lime burned from chalk, which is 
blended with powdered coal ashes will be much more 
binding in the walls, than all other lime-mortars, which 
quality they attribute to the coal-ashes. 

At every kiln there are six persons, three men and 
three women. Two of the carls have the charge of 
breaking the chalk loose, and of hewing it into small 



GRAVESEND. 435 

pieces, as well as of lifting the baskets on to the women's 
shoulders ; but it often happens, nevertheless, that the 
women also get helping to hack the chalk into small 
pieces. Both the carls and all three women help to fill 
the baskets with the bits of chalk, when the carls com- 
monly screen the bits of chalk in the fiddle, and the 
women throw them into the baskets. The women are 
obliged, almost alone, to carry the baskets on their heads 
and shoulders from the place whence the chalk is taken 
to the lime-kilns. Likewise they are obliged to carry 
coal-baskets from the place where they were filled to the 
lime-kiln. The third of the three carls is constantly at 
the lime-kiln, where he takes the chalk baskets from the 
women's heads and shoulders, and throws the chalk into 
the kiln. Similarly he throws the coals in their turn into 
the kiln. In short, he performs all the duties which are 
carried on at the lime-kiln itself, besides that he helps 
[T. II. p. 86], when he has time, to break up the coal into 
small bits, at boka sonder stenkalen, etc.* Every 
woman always carries three baskets each time, namely, 
she has a piece of board of about 8 inches broad, and about 
i foot long, on which is a rope or band, one end of which 
is fastened to one end of the piece of wood, and the 
other to the other. This band is laid by a noose over 
the upper part of the head, so that the piece of board 
comes to lie across the shoulders, when one basket is set 
to rest upon the piece of board, and the other two beside 
it on the head, whilst the woman inclines her head a 
little as she walks. On the head they have an old man's- 
hat, and under the piece of wood and the band a bunch 
of hay, that the piece of wood and the cord may not 
injure the back. 

* Boka, see Glossary to Studies in Nidderdale, p. 240, s.v. ■ Bukker,' 
also Stud, p. 28. [J. L.] 



43^ KALM'S ENGLAND. 

When these lime-kilns are once lighted up, they are said 
to burn the whole year night and day, only being allowed 
to go out during Yuletide, on the principal feast days. But 
as soon as these are past they are lighted up new, and are 
continued in that state night and day till the next Yule. 

The chalk which is laid in the morning in the kiln to 
burn, is in it, sometimes two, sometimes three days, 
before it passes through the kiln, and becomes full- 
burned. For the most part they reckon three days for 
its burning. While it is thus passing through the kiln 
its burning goes on, not only from the beds of coal which 
lie next to it, but [T. II. p. 87] also from the brickwork 
in the kiln, which is very hot from the long continued 
burning. The heat of the kiln is so strong that pieces 
of flint which have accompanied the chalk fragments 
into the kiln are converted into a white glass. 

As soon as the chalk laid in the kiln is full-burnt, and 
has got through the whole kiln, so that it is now at 
the bottom, it is taken out of the kiln with the above 
described shovels. The ground outside round about the 
lime-kiln near the kiln-mouths is [paved with] broad 
square flat bricks, tegelstenar. The burned bits of 
chalk are laid in such places as are in the skeeling or 
shelter, skjulet, which is round about the kiln, and 
when they have got all the corners, vrar, so full that no 
more can be accommodated there, it is carried thence in 
large carts, karror, down to the banks of the Thames, 
which runs close by, where it is laid unslaked in vessels 
or barges, and is carried up to London to be sold. Other- 
wise when they take a portion of this burned chalk, and 
throw a little water upon it, it begins by degrees to 
smoke and becomes so hot that one cannot hold the 
hand upon it. At length the bits fall to pieces into a fine 
meal, exactly in the same way as happens with another 
unslacked lime from limestone. 



GRAVESEND. 437 

When the chalk is full burnt, it is considerably lighter, 
than it was before, and full of small fissures, like as when 
one has laid potters'-clay in the fire. The colour on the 
surface is greyish, which without doubt is due to the 
coal and smoke. If such a piece be broken asunder, it 
is not [T. II. p. 88] so white within as it was while it was 
still unburnt. 

: Pieces of flint of 5 inches long and 1 inch diameter, 
which have come to be cast with the chalk into the lime- 
kiln are burnt through, and snow white all through so 
that they look like white Dutch ware, krus. 

The burned pieces of chalk are so cracked to pieces 
and full of cracks that they fall into small bits when one 
takes hold of them. 

The parts of these pieces which have been against 
the cracks are also darker in colour than that which has 
been midway between the same cracks, because some 
coal smoke has without doubt penetrated into the cracks. 

That the slacked lime might not be spilt when it is 
thrown into the barge, they had a trough of boards 
knocked together, of 4 or 5 feet wide, and about 8 feet 
long, which they set sloping against the side of the boat 
and tipped the bits of chalk out of the barrow into this 
trough, when they fell down into the vessel. Such a 
trough or slide is always used at boats when unburnt 
chalk is loaded in them. 

I have said before that around all these kilns on the 
lower side is built a screen of boards, partly to prevent 
the wind from blowing too strongly on to the kiln, partly 
and principally that those within it might be able to keep 
the burnt pieces of chalk, which they take out of the 
kiln before they are carried down to the barge, Partygen, 
or yacht, Jackten, which conveys them to London. This 
screen is in fact of boards, but its foot is in some places 
to a height of 3 feet of brick. For a roof over [T. II. 



438 KALM S ENGLAND. 

p. 89] this skeeling is the altan or balcony, as I may call 
it, which goes round about the upper edge of the kiln. 
Between the kiln-walls at the bottom and the screen, 
skrank eller plank, the distance is commonly 6 feet. 
The screen has two openings, one on each side of the 
kiln, where they load the burned bits of chalk on to the 
cart. 

The limekiln is always built close in to the place 
where they break the chalk, that they might not have too 
long a distance to carry the baskets and the chalk, there- 
fore there are seen standing here and there unused old 
limekilns, which they have left since they had quarried 
away all the chalk near them, and it began to be too far 
to carry the chalk-baskets. 

The women receive each about eightpence a day, for 
which they work exceedingly hard, for they mostly labour 
like slaves. 

They said they were paid in this way, that a woman 
gets one penny when she has carried sixteen baskets of 
chalk to the limekiln, and for this penny she had also 
broken up a good deal of chalk. The man who had 
charge of them, confirmed what the women had said, that 
they receive one penny for sixteen baskets carried, at 
which rate they can earn twelve, fifteen, or eighteenpence 
a day, according as they are industrious. The men, 
Karlarne, get either nine or ten shillings a week. Food 
and everything they must find for themselves. 

A little way from Rochester on the Gravesend side 
were several Chalkpits, out of which they took chalk, 
which was loosened with crowbars, jarnstorar; hacked 
still farther to pieces with iron-hackers, jarnhackor, or 
picks, and was finally beaten [T. II. p. 90] with iron 
pounders, jarn-knoster, into small lumps and bits, 
which were afterwards carried to the kiln, where they 
were burned to lime. 



GRAVESEND. 439 

After they had pounded a heap of chalk fragments 
into smaller bits, all the pounded chalk was not carried 
to the limekiln, but they laid it first in a coarse ' fiddle ' 
and screened away that which had gone to powder, which 
they did not take. The flints which were found in the 
chalk were separated therefrom, and were cast together 
in a heap, to reform the ground, as they were obliged to 
do. The limekilns were here built entirely underground, 
so that the upper edge of the limekilns was horizontal 
with the surface of the ground. The kilns were, however, 
here one-third part smaller than those which are at North- 
fleet, and getting on for half the size ; but in other respects 
nearly of the same form, excepting that at the bottom 
there is only one draught-hole, drag-hal, instead of 
several as in those at Northfleet. They also went through 
at once down to the same draw-hole, like a tar-mill with 
us in Osterbotten. In other respects, the walls are all 
built of brick. The Carl said that the chalk, which he 
lays in the kiln the one morning, can be ready burnt to 
take out the following morning. The lime they burn here 
is not carried to London, but is all used up at Rochester 
and in that neighbourhood. 

The chalk is burned, in other respects, here in exactly 
the same manner as at Northfleet, viz., alternations of coal 
broken into very small pieces, and bits of chalk, etc. 

The ist August, 1748. 

[T. II. p. g 1.] Sain Foin is much used here in Kent. 
Most people here call it Cinquefoil which they have cor- 
rupted from Sain Foin. When it is once sown, it can 
stand ten or twelve years, without requiring to be sown 
again ; for which time they can mow it every year. After 
the time when it begins to be somewhat thin, so that it 
does not seem to be worth while to mow it, they do not 
at once plough up the ground it grows upon, but let it 



440 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

remain two, three, or four years, during which time they 
give liberty to cattle, but in particular sheep to go and 
bait upon it, by which means the land also becomes 
manured. They are obliged to proceed thus with it, 
because here in Kent there is very little meadow-land 
and pasture for sheep. When they do plough up such 
land it is commonly sown the first year with Pease, but 
sometimes with another crop, as is found necessary. 

For horses Sain Foin is an excellent food both in 
summer and winter, but if it is given to cows, after it is 
dry, they eat no more of it than the flowers that lie on 
the top, nearly all the rest they reject and trample under 
foot. It has been attempted to sow it, at some places in 
Essex, from the seeds which they took from hence, Kent, 
but it has not by any means flourished, but grew so 
poorly that it has not been worth while to sow it again. 
The soil is sand and gravel, at the places where it was tried. 

Clover. In this district also much clover is sown. 
Spring is commonly the season when it is sown, but they 
do not get to mow it before the next [T. II. p. 92] 
summer after that. It is hardly ever sown more than 
two summers in succession, and very often not more than 
a single summer, after which they commonly leave it to 
the next summer after it is mown before turning in the 
sheep to feed upon it. As was said above, it is necessary 
to cause them to be closely crowded on the pasture, 
because the farmers then at the same time have the 
advantage, that the fields are manured when the sheep 
go in to pasture there. The cows eat the clover greedily, 
both fresh and dry, stalk and all. 

Vicia Sativa. Similarly, in many places hereabout 
they sow tares or Vicia Sat. as food for cattle. The 
principal use to which it is put, is that they cut it up 
green at this season of the year, and give it to horses at 
home, who eat it very greedily. No more of it is left 



GRAVESEND. 44 1 

standing on the land than proves necessary for collecting 
its seed for next year, for this is a planta annua, which 
must be sown every year, and that in early spring so that 
it can by this time, August, be taken up as food for cattle. 
At this time of the year, tid, they here keep their horses at 
home in the stable for the reason that out in the inclosures 
they are so much troubled with flies and other insects. 

Rofvor, turnips. They also sow turnips here as at 
other places in England. The season when they com- 
monly sow them is just about this time. I was to-day 
in a large inclosure in the afternoon, which in the 
morning had been sown with turnip seed. The whole 
inclosure was laid out as turnip land. The land lies 
fallow all the summer before this time. At the beginning 
of July they carry [T. II. p. 93] the manure out on to 
this land (see T. I. p. 483 orig.) which manure is mostly 
straw-litter, halmbyssie, such as is collected in the 
farm-yard, fa - garden, and has there lain under 
the cattle, and has become mixed in with their dung. 
After this has been carried on to the fields and laid 
there by the load, lasstals, it is spread out as soon as 
possible, and is ploughed down. After that the field 
is harrowed and rolled so that it becomes quite fine. 
The principal reason why they sow such a quantity of 
turnips here is that they feed and fatten both sheep 
and oxen with them in the winter. 

Akerbruket. The Agriculture. The places which 
they make up their minds to sow with wheat in autumn 
are such as are either now lying fallow, or also where 
beans are now growing, which they plough up in the 
autumn and sow with wheat. 

The 2nd August, 1748. 

Kallor mycket rara har p& orten. Springs very 
rare in this district. I have often before made the remark 



442 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

that spring-wells and gushing springs with becks flowing 
from them, springMllor med springader och 
flytande back fran dem, such as occur in abundance 
in Sweden, are sometimes scarce at the places I had pre- 
viously been to in England. I have also made the same 
observation here in Kent, and also in the part of Essex 
which lies opposite Gravesend. The country on both 
sides consists of high banks and hills with deep dales 
between, and in some places, particularly on both sides of 
the river Thames, large low-lying plains, so that many 
from all this might conclude that in the valleys between 
the hills and on the low plains immediately under the hills, 
there would be found an abundance [T. II. p. 94J of 
running streams, and a plentiful supply of springs here 
and there, but nothing is more rare. During my visit to 
Gravesend I walked tolerably well over the, country 
around on all sides, was also twice over in Essex, and 
there walked assiduously round the country, but for all 
that I had not the good fortune to get to see a single 
spring, kalla, with running water, nor a single running 
stream, more than immediately west of Northfleet. 

All the running water I saw here was in the river 
Thames, the river Medway, which passes by Rochester, 
and the little beck west of Northfleet. 

An Englishman was asked whether there are any 
springs here. He immediately answered yes, and in 
addition to that they are beautiful; but when he comes 
to point them out, it is nothing else than a deep well 
down in the chalk, which he says has a spring feeder, 
because the water therein cannot be emptied out, 
although it lies some fathoms' depth down. 

It is certain that the country is here very pretty, to 
such an extent is this so that through the planting of 
hedges round all the enclosures it everywhere resembles 
a garden. Besides this, the continual variety of high 



QRAVESEND. 443 

knolls and deep dales without seeing any stones larger 
than a boy can throw, greatly increases its charm, but 
nevertheless, the pretty effect of crystal clear running 
becks, and their murmuring sound in the green dales is 
much missed ; such a joy no one here knows of. I am 
here speaking about the places I was at, for in several 
other parts of England there is an abundance of beauti- 
ful springs. [T. II. p. 95.] All the water which the 
inhabitants require for themselves and their cattle must 
be collected either in deep wells in the chalk, or in large 
dug-pits and ponds in the inclosures, where the rain 
water stands, and serves for the cattle, which there 
pasture, to drink, for which purpose also such ponds 
have always very gently sloping sides, that the cattle 
may be able to go down to them and drink. But some- 
one might ask the reason why there are here so very 
few, or in short, no springs and becks, where, neverthe- 
less, the country consists of banks and hills, with deep 
valleys, though it sometimes rains here heavily ? I 
answer that I cannot just understand this, but I have 
made the following observations : — 

1. They have everywhere here deep wells in the 
chalk, both near the Thames and far away from it, 
wherein is an abundance of water which never fails. 

2. The surface of the ground consists of a loose 
mould, on which one hardly ever sees any water stand, 
however it rains, but it sinks in at once, and the upper 
surface is soon dry, at least on the top. 

3. When they have dug the pits so deep, that they are 
some way down in the chalk, the water stands in them, 
and remains for several days before the sun succeeds in 
drying it up. 

4. When one digs never so little into the chalk, where 
it forms a hill, it is quite humid and moist within, and the 
deeper one digs so much more humid and wetter it is. 



444 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

5. In the chalk pits the chalk is found not to lie quite 
dense [T. II. p. 96] and solid, but is full of both horizon- 
tal and perpendicular fissures. 

6. If one goes early in the morning into a chalk pit 
before the sun has dried up the dew, or also on to a field 
where pieces of chalk are lying, one will find that the 
chalk is slippery, and almost wetter than any other kind 
of earth. 

From all these observations it seems to follow that 
the rain and the snow which falls cannot stand in the 
surface soil because it is too loose ; but it goes down into 
the chalk ; that the chalk has a property of absorbing 
moisture ; that the water filters deeper down, through 
the many perpendicular and horizontal fissures in the 
chalk : that very few becks could, on that account, be 
found on the chalk hills, because they, as it were, swallow 
up all the water before it has time to collect so as to form 
a beck ; that crops and pease which grow on the chalk 
hills, for that reason, do not require to be drained, 
because the chalk, which lies below, probably absorbs the 
dew in the night, and in the day is dissolved by the water 
which lies down in the fissures. 

From this want of springs and flowing waters it 
happens that the cattle, at times in the summer when it 
is a long and severe drought, come to suffer much. They 
must often then be driven some miles before they can be 
watered. I was informed that in some places they had 
no other water to use for cooking than such as was 
collected in the chalk pits, which is white and thick, and 
often so full of small insects that they are obliged both to 
filter and boil it [T. II. p. 97] first, before they dare use it. 

Sain Foin. I have said above that most of the inci- 
sures which here in Kent are used as meadows, were 
sown with Sain Foin. I saw to-day places were Sain 
Foin had been cut, harvested, and carried home this year, 



GRAVESEND. 445 

but as no cattle had been turned in to feed there, it had 
already so advanced in growth since that time, that it 
was now 9 in. high, with an abundance of soft and tender 
leaves striking out from the roots and stalks which, more- 
over, stood very thick, so that I believe that they might 
be able to mow it again this summer. 

The 3rd August, 1748. 

Salicornia, dess nytta, Samphire its use. Salicornia 
herbacea. Linn. Flor. Svec. I. ; Rai. Syn. 136 ; grows on 
the low-lying banks of the Thames, which at every flood 
tide are overflowed by the salt water of the Thames — for 
one ought to know that the water in all this part of the 
Thames which is at and below Gravesend is very salt, 
because the flood which happens twice a day (of 24 
hours) drives the salt water up from the sea. The 
English women pluck this herb at this season, and pickle 
it, insylta, which is done as follows : The herb is taken 
entire as it grows, but broken off at the roots. As much 
of it as is required is thus gathered. It is well washed in 
cold vinegar, one stalk and plant after another, that all 
the dust and dirt which had clung to it might be rinsed 
off. They do not wash it in water [T. II. p. 98] because 
if it is afterwards laid in vinegar (as it should be) the 
water which remains firmly lodged in the plant, dilutes 
the vinegar, so that it becomes weaker, whence it becomes 
clouded and full of mildew, and thus becomes altogether 
ruined. After they have thus washed the stalks or the 
plants clean in vinegar, and laid them on a board for the 
vinegar to run off a little, they take a stone jar, 
Stenburk, of the size which they have enough Samphire 
(Salicornia) for, lay the plants therein till it is full, pour 
in the best and quite pure vinegar, just so much as to 
cover the herbs in the pot. Thereupon they take some 
mustard, rub it down to a perfectly dry powder, because 



446 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

it has no efficacy, kraft, or at least is not so strong 
if it is unground and entire. They then cut a clean 
linen cloth to the size round and diameter of the jar 
inside, and then another linen cloth of the same size, 
hem them round the hedges to a round bag, fill it with 
the ground dry mustard so that it is only as thick as the 
blade of a knife ; then, not only sow up the hole through 
which the mustard was put in, but also sow a quilted 
network of cross-lines upon the face, just as one stops 
a quilt or bodice with * hards ' * and cotton, that it may 
lie even. This bag, pasen, so filled is laid upon the 
Samphire, which not only presses it down so that it all 
lies in the vinegar and none above it, but also prevents 
it from forming any mildew on the surface. Afterwards 
they have a large Chamois-leather, samsk-lapp, which 
reaches well over the jar. This is laid over the jar and 
tied tight down that the virtue, kraft, of the vinegar 
may not be lost. [T. II. p. 99.] They let it stand so 
for 14 days or a month, and then look whether the 
Samphire still retains its green colour, which if it does 
then they take some pinks, naglikor, Dianthus Caryo- 
phyllus, L. Clove Pink, ginger, Ingefara, pepper, and 
mace, muskotblomma, half an ounce of each, and 
half an ounce of Jamaica pepper (allspices), boil them 
together, let them cool, and then lay them in the jar with 
the Samphire, tie it up again, after replacing the mustard 
bag as before said, and leave it so to stand till they 
require it. But if, as commonly happens, they see that 
the Samphire has not kept its green colour, but has 
changed to a yellow colour, they take it together with 
the vinegar it lies in, lay it with the afore-named spices 



* 4 Hards of Flax and Hemp, the coarser parts separated from the fine 
stuff.' Bailey, Eng. Die. 1736. 'Hardens' or 'Harden,' hemp, hemp- 
fabric. &c. Lucas, Stud. 1882, Glossary, p. 257. fj. L.] 






GRAVESEND. 447 

in a metal saucepan, and boil all till the Samphire which 
had a yellow colour when it was put in acquires a beau- 
tiful green colour, in respect of which be it noted that it 
is stirred from time to time while it is boiling. As soon 
then as it has got its former green colour, which com- 
monly happens in the course of half an hour, although 
sometimes more or less, they take it off the fire, pour all 
together into the jar, lay on the mustard bag, tie the 
Chamois leather over, and preserve it till it is wanted. 

They often make them in this way. After they have 
rinsed them in vinegar when they are newly plucked, 
they pour pure vinegar on them, and boil them at once 
with the aforesaid spices ; upon which, it is to be noted, 
that although they are green when they are laid in the 
metal saucepan, they nevertheless become quite yellow 
as soon as they are warm, but they must be kept boiling 
till they regain their former [T. II. p. ioo] green colour, 
after which it is proceeded with according to the previous 
instructions. They do best of all if they are preserved 
in a jar in a somewhat warm room. They are used in 
the autumn and winter season with steak and other food, 
in the same way as pickled walnuts or cucumbers, without 
anything else being added to them. 

Obs. — The vinegar which they are rinsed and washed 
in is thrown away after they have been washed. 

At insylta Champ ignioner. To Pickle Mushrooms. 
The women pickled them thus: they plucked them whilst 
they were still quite small, when they keep best, boil 
them in very salt water about ten minutes, take them out 
and lay them in a linen cloth to dry. Afterwards they 
take vinegar, whole pepper, and mace, muskotblomma, 
boil it all together, and also pour a little white wine into 
it. When it has boiled a little they take it off, let it cool, 
lay the mushrooms after they are dry in a glass jar, pour 
the vinegar and the other spices on to them so that it 



44^ KALM'S ENGLAND. 

covers them over, then they have a Chamois leather 
which they tie over the glass so that it is quite closed, and 
use it when it is wanted. The large mushrooms are not 
pickled, but are stewed while fresh. The small ones 
which were pickled were of the size of finger's-ends, and 
consisted of the entire pileus or hat, and the pedunculas 
or stalk, with the lamellae and all, nothing being taken 
away. They were not washed before they were laid in 
the pickle, saltlakan, to be boiled. 

[T. II. p. ioi.] The 4th August, 1748. 

At midday came Captain Lawson from London to 
Gravesend, whither the ship had already gone before on 
the n July. 

Gravesend is a little spot which lies in a charming 
place in Kent close to the river Thames, about 22 English 
miles from London. The houses are for a great part of 
brick, but some are old and built in a very ugly style. 
The streets are uneven, irregular, and paved with flints. 
In the town is a beautiful English Church and a Presby- 
terian House of Prayer, Bonehus. Outside the English 
Church is this inscription : " Hanc aedem incendio 
lugubri deletam Georgius II., Rex Munificentissimus, 
Senatus Consilio, instaurandam decrevit," which at 
once points attention to the conflagration which this 
little town suffered some years back, when a great part 
of it was laid in ashes.* 

In and around the town are several kitchen gardens, 
kryddgardar, whence a large quantity of kitchen 
garden produce is sent up to London nearly every day, 
besides what is sold to seafarers, sjofarande; and 
Gravesend Asparagus is especially famous, as it is 



* 24th August, 1727, destroyed no houses and the Church, Pocock 
Hisl. of Gravesend, 1797. [J. L.] 



GRAVESEND. 



449 



reckoned the best in England. The principal support of 
the inhabitants consists here in selling all kinds of pro- 
visions and liqueurs to sea-folk and travellers. All ships 
which come from abroad to London here take a Custom 
House officer on board. Here also nearly all ships from 
London furnish themselves with fresh provisions before 
they commit themselves to the seas. The ships generally 
go some days beforehand from London to Gravesend, 
partly [T. II. p. 102] to furnish themselves afresh, partly 
to, as it were, undergo from the Custom House officer a 
new clearing before they go to sea, and the captain and 
passengers commonly come down here 4 or 5 days after 
the ship. 

Exactly opposite Gravesend on the other side of the 
river Thames, in Essex, lies the fortification called 
Tilbury Fort, which commands the approach to London. 

Between Gravesend and London there run daily 
several small yachts or boats, which convey passengers 
and other travellers there and back. 




2G 




[The $th August, 1748.] 

; [At this point commences Pehr Kami's ' Travels into 
North America,' translated into English by J. R, Forster. 
With Maps, Cuts, and Notes. Warrington, 1770-71. 
3 vols., 8vo. The account of the voyage down the 
Channel is much abridged, and descriptions of points on 
the English Coast are omitted altogether.] 

The 5th August, 1748. 
Resan. The Voyage. 

At 6 o'clock in the afternoon we went on board the 
ship Mary Gaily, commanded by Captain Lawson, and 
bound for Philadelphia in North America. We then 
sailed in the Lord's Name from Gravesend, and went a 
good piece down the river Thames before we cast anchor. 
We lay there till about 3 o'clock the following morning, 
when the voyage was continued. 

The 6th August. 

In the morning we continued our voyage down the 
river Thames, and so out into the Channel, down which 
we afterwards sailed under the coasts of England. We 

45o 



THE VOYAGE. 45 1 

could constantly see the shores of England, and were at 
times in tacking close into them. 

All those parts consist of Chalk which are high, 
steep, and almost perpendicular. Measured by the eye 
the height of these steep Chalk coasts, from the water 
up to the turf, seemed to be 3 to 4 fathoms, in some 
places [T. II. p. 103] more, in other places less.. We 
could see with the naked eye that in these chalk cliffs 
also there were such strata of bare flints as have been 
described above, one of which, just half way between 
the water surface and the top soil, ran quite horizontal^ 
as though it had been arranged on the dead level, and 
was visible nearly the whole way along this piece of coast.* 
Lower down, a little above the surface of the water, 
another appeared, but the view of it was broken and 
indistinct. Upon these Chalk hills lay beautiful arable 
fields, on which the crops which were almost all wheat 
were just beginning to turn yellow, and were nearly 
ready for cutting. We could not see any sheaves or cut 
crops, whereas, at the beginning of the week before^ we 
saw rye sheaves in Essex from Gravesend. 

About six o'clock in the evening we arrived at Deal, 
off which we cast anchor. Deal is a little spot or town, 
flack eller Stad, lying on the shore at the entrance of 
a little bay, vik, which the sea has made. The houses 
are nearly all built of brick, and roofed_ partly with 
pantiles, but mostly with plain tiles. 

There is only one church in the town, not large, and 
almost without a tower, only a little box, kur, in its 
place. The churchyard is tolerably large, and has 
planted round it an avenue of elms, in which one can go 
and walk. The inhabitants live tolerably comfortably, 
and support themselves principally by trade. Nearly all 



* This has been called by Mr.. Whjtaker •■ The Xhree-inch,Band." 0. L.] 

2G 2 



45 2 KALM S ENGLAND. 

ships which come from London, and intend to proceed 
through the Channel, or vice versa, lie here one day or 
more and furnish themselves commonly with all kinds of 
fresh provisions, besides [T. II. p. 104] brandy and other 
wines, although they have to pay very heavily for them, 
because the people know how to make a good bargain. 
A great many also get their living by rowing, in that 
they carry passengers from the ships to the land and 
back, for which they always make them pay dearly. By 
fishing they also make handsome profits, by selling the 
fresh fish to the sea folk who come here to anchor. In 
the late war most of them followed privateering, kaperi, 
and thereby accumulated large sums. The haven, 
hamnen, is not particularly good, for it is open to the 
south and east, from which quarter the storms have 
freedom to beat upon this place from the sea, but that 
does not make any difference, because it is mostly in the 
absence of this wind that the ships lie here in the roads. 
Here the ships leave the pilots whom they had from 
London to Gravesend. When the south-east gales are 
blowing heavily they know it in Deal, because it lies open 
to this wind. Here also the ships which are bound for 
London take their pilots on board. 

The yth Atigust 1748. 

In the morning I landed at Deal, where I was till 
towards evening. 

Lumbricus Marinus. When the sea-water at ebb-tide 
fell off Deal, the fishermen went down on to the lowest 
places, which the sea had just left, and which were 
covered over with a fine sand, where they dug up 
the sea-worms, hafsmaskar, which have their residence 
under the sand on the sea-shore, and are described 
by Linnaeus in his Vest Gotha Resa. p. 189 [T. II. 
p. 105], and also in his Fauna Svecia, 1270 [1746]. 



THE VOYAGE. 453 

[also in Systema Natures, Vindobonce, 1767, 8vo. Ed, 
Decima tertia, 3 T. — T. I. pars. II. p. 1076, 277]. They 
dug up these creatures, krak, which are a species of 
earth-worms, metmaskar, in this way. They had a 
little digger, grep, of iron with three grains or tines, with 
which they dug up the loose sand where these worms 
had their residence, when they commonly found them 18 
inches deep in the sand. The sign which they had to be 
able to know where these worms lived is that they creep up 
out of the sand at high water, and lie upon it, but as 
soon as it is ebb and the tide goes out they creep down 
under the sand. Meantime, as far as they have been on 
the surface of the sand they leave their track behind 
them, which consists of bare fine sand, and looks like 
small worms lying in a ring, or of disc-shaped forms, 
kringel-lika former, in the other sand. These raised 
sand-rings indicate to the fishermen the place where the 
worms live, and by that means betray them. The worms 
they get are collected in bottles, and are used as bait 
on hooks for whiting or cod. They call them Logworms.* 

Machine to wind up Boats. 
At Deal there is ebb and flood, when the water for 
six hours rises high up, and for six hours falls very far 
out, therefore to get up the boats so that they may stand 
more safely and not be broken by the waves when it 
begins to be high water, they have on the beach above 
where the boats stand, capstans, with perpendicular axes, 
with which by means of a rope which is fastened near 
the bottom of the boat, they wind it up as high as they 
wish on the beach. 

The 8th August, 1748. 
Next day at 3 o'clock in the morning we left Deal, and 

* That is Sea-worms. O. Norsk, Logr, the sea. [J. L.] 



454 KfALM'S- ENGLAND. 

went with the tidal current from thence along the Channel, 
but not faster than the stream drove us. We had the 
English coast at a short distance on our right-hand. It 
consisted of bare chalk, was tolerably high, and stood 
for the most part perpendicular. 

At 10 o'clock in the morning we passed Dover, which 
is a little spot with a Castell above it on a hill. The 
country here along the coast was in some places quite 
steep, in other places long-sloping for about half an 
English mile, above which the high chalk hills came on, 
togO emot. These were not perpendicular, but more 
sloping, and now over-grown with- grass. When the 
land had gone so long-sloping for a certain distance, it 
again became steep and perpendicular, so that bare 
white chalk appeared. In the afternoon the wind blew 
rather fresh, blaste enlitenkul, so we luffed (lovevade)* 
off and on between the English and French coasts. We 
were sometimes not far from the French side, so that we 
could, especially with a glass (Perspectiv) , clearly see 
houses, fields, &c. Here, I remember what I read in 
Camden's Britannia, viz., that he says that he early 
formed the opinion that England had formerly joined on 
to Francef or Flanders, where Dover and Calais now lie, 
by some small arm, and that the sea had afterwards 
washed it away, or some other accident now unknown to 
us, had come to destroy the same arm or ness, arm 
eller nas. I for my part am much inclined [T- II. 
p. 107] to believe the same when I consider the following 
facts, viz., that England opposite Calais, between Deal 

* Sw. Lofvera, Fr. Louvoyer, Gcr. Laviren, Fug. Luff. Bailey, Eiig. Die, 
1736, has " To looj (commonly pronounced luff) a term used in conding of a 
ship, as loof, &c, i.e., keep the ship nearer the wind." [J. L.] 

f To say nothing of the uncertain conjecture Of several writers, Antonius 
Volscius, Dominicus Marius Niger, Servius Honoratus, Joli. Twine, Guil. 
Musgrave, and Henry, Hist. ofBtn.—Httl.. [J. L.] 



THE VOYAGE. 455 

and Dover, forms a projecting point, and, that Flanders 
near Calais forms a point projecting towards England ; 
that both points consist of the same kind of earth, viz., 
of high perpendicular chalk cliffs, kritvallar ; that the 
land on both sides has the same'/ocws and appearance ; 
consists of a collection of round and long-slopinghills of 
chalk, kullriga och langsluttan.de hogder af 
Krita, so that if one who had seen the coast of England 
should get to see the coast of France here, and did not 
know that it was such, he would certainly believe that it 
was the English coast, vallen, and English hills. On 
the English coast we saw here and there some beautiful 
churches, small towns, &c. The ploughed fields lay on 
the hills, but trees were here rare, and we did not notice 
that they were divided into enclosures by means of 
hedges. 

In the evening a multitude of Porpoises, Marsvin 
eller Isor, tumbled about everywhere in the sea around 
our ship. . . 

A Burial at Sea. 

. . ■" . - . 
In the evening, a woman, one of the religious fugitives 
from Pfaltz in Germany was buried according to the 
usual custom of the sea. She was one of sixty men, 
women and children, who were now going with' us Over 
to the English colonies in America, to settle there, j The 
funeral was performed in this way, that after they had 
bound her in sailcloth, a quantity of coals in an old sack 
were fastened to the feet, when she was laid on a board 
and then plunged from the board into the sea, when she 
sank at once to the bottom. Some Psalms were sung 
first. 

The gth August, 1748. 

Resan. . The Voyage. At daybreak the ship was 
allowed to drive forward with the tidal current as long as 



45 6 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

it lasted ; but before that, as long as the stream was 
against us, we had cast anchor. At daybreak we passed 
one of England's promontories, uddar, called Dungeness. 
At 9 o'clock the stream was against us, when we cast 
anchor nearly opposite Fairlight. On the sea it was now 
so calm that the water scarcely moved beyond that the 
stream drove it. We could see the English coast quite 
easily, which was in some places high, steep, and sloping, 
almost perpendicular, and in other places long-sloping. 
The perpendicular earth walls near the sea did not here 
consist of chalk, but of a light grey earth. We could 
nowhere see a sign of chalk in them. The French coast 
lay so far from us that we could scarcely see it. At 
12 o'clock noon it began to blow somewhat, when we 
lifted anchor, unfurled the sails, and with tacking, drew 
away. 

We were sometimes right under the English coast 
near Fairlight, which coast did not here consist of chalk 
but of a grey fine sand, as far as we could discover with 
the glass and the naked eye ; besides this, Captain 
Lawson confirmed the same. This coast also was steep 
enough, so that no one could climb up it without a ladder, 
Stega, or some other instrument, verktyg, but in some 
places it was long-sloping. The country above it was, 
like the rest of England we saw, a collection of hills 
[T. II. p. 109] side by side, with dales between. Yet 
the hills here were more gently sloping. On them lay 
ploughed fields, meadows, and pastures, which were all 
enclosed with green hedges and leaf-trees. Here and 
there some churches appeared on the hills, with quite 
little short and pointed steeples on massive towers, which 
had been so built, that the wind which here has a large 
field to gather strength upon, might not blow them over. 
We could see no chalk cliffs or hills here. Towards 
evening we cast anchor for a short time, but as a gentle 



THE VOYAGE. 457 

east wind began to blow at 9 o'clock, the anchor was 
again lifted, and the voyage was continued the whole of 
the following night. 

Hafsdjur. Marine Animals. [Jelly fish.] We saw 
also a kind of marine animals floating in the water 
something like the annexed figure. The colour ^^ 
was mostly violet. It was round and opened itself j||l 
nearly like a purse, pung, when we saw in the ^E^ 
midst of it four white rings. It must be some kind of 
Medusa. I could not get a chance of catching any. 
The sizes were various, some quite small of i inch 
diameter, and the largest about 6 inches across. 

The 10th August, 1748. 

The voyage was continued the whole of this day with 
a favourable and delightful wind, which drove the ship 
quickly, but raised some waves on the sea. In the morn- 
ing at 7 o'clock, we caught sight of the Isle of Wight, 
which lies outside Portsmouth, and [T. II. p. no], 
belongs to England. It, as well as the country round, 
seemed to consist of chalk, because the cliffs, vallarna, 
were snow white. It is also highland enough. 

Farilar. While we were sailing here out on the sea, 
so that we could only see a little of the English coast a 
great way off, but not any other land, there came some 
white butterflies flying over the sea, and sometimes 
accompanied the ship for a little. Sometimes also they 
flew before the ship. I could not catch one to see what 
species it was, but they exactly resembled the snowwhite 
Cabbage Butterflies, Kal Farilar, both in shape and 
size. 

I did not see them pitch anywhere on the ship. We 
also saw them yesterday. All wondered how these frail 
creatures ventured so far from the shore. 

At noon we passed in front of the Isle of Wight, which 



45 5 KALM'S ENGLAND. 

was a very high land, but yet near the shores mostly 
long-sloping. The soil was there of chalk, but this chalk 
is said not to be so good as that near Gravesend, but 
harder. On both sides of the Isle of Wight appeared 
high steep cliffs of bare chalk. The land on the surface 
of this island seemed to be divided by hedges. 

At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we began to see the Isle 
of Portland, nearly in front of us at a great distance. We 
also saw the English coast right opposite us, but a long 
way off. This was [T. II. p. in], mostly steep enough, 
and seemed quite white, but whether it was chalk or 
some white kind of stone or other, I could not determine, 
for the long distance. 

The nth August, 1748. 

Resan. The Voyage. We sailed quickly the whole 
of the previous night, and also this day. At 6 o'clock in 
the morning we saw Bolthead, a promontory of England, 
inside which Plymouth (Pleymouth) lies. Porpoises 
tumbled about here and there in the water. At noon the 
wind moderated, and almost died away, so that the ship 
could not travel very fast. Otherwise our ship was a 
very fast sailer. The captains who were on board agreed 
that they had scarcely ever seen any ship which sailed so 
fast. They reckoned it thus, than when other ships in 
one hour sailed three miles, ours in the same time sailed 
5 miles. At noon we left the English Coast, and saw it 
again no more. Vi lamnade vid Middagstid 
Angelska vallen och sago den ej mera. 



INDEX. 



TPlo.© ITig"CL:r@;s denote ip^t^-os:- 

Acre-reins .... ... , 50,184,215,238,239,290,300,352,368 

Aftermath ; .... ........ .... ... ... •«... i 414 

Agriculture , ... ... ... ... ! ... 441 

American Notes ... — ... = -•>... - ... ...->... 112-120 

r North American pines, cypresses ■ ... ... 58 

America, silk grass ... -... • >... =-... -»...•- ... 116 

^ . — wax from a kind of sweet willow ■-... ... 112 

.-.-> wild oxen ... ... ... ... ... .*....' 113 

An gri a, the sea rover... ... ... - ... 191 

Anthrocera filipendula .... - ... ..«.-.., ... ... ... 409 

Ants ...... ... ...... „ .spm- ... ' ... 164 

Arable field pastures... ... ..*... ... ... 302 

<^** — r- fields, position and cultivation of 157, 164, 215, 237, 261, 276, 
... 283J 289, 300, 351, 368, 398, 411 

■ — r- without hedges or fences ... 265 

Aranea labyrinthica ... ... 409 

Arbutus, to raise from seed 25 

Arid places ... - ... ... • ... ... ... 184 

Ash tree, age of ... ... •■■•»... ... ... ... ... 330 

Ashes as manure on meadows - ... . ... - ... 250 

As.hridge park, 221 ; deer in, 22»2»; hay in, 225; ricks in, 227; 

well in, 228 ; donkey wheel over well ... 228 

Asses, the use of ... ... ... ... ... .... ... 160 

Baker, author of work on Polyps- ... ... ... -... ... 61 

Balls of iron-pyrites; here and there on the fields ... ... 312 

Barley ... ... ... 43, 165 

Barley sown ... ... »*%.. "•••• -■■'... ... -■■-... '276,289 

Barns, thrashing corn, &c 171 

Baster ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 390 

Beans ... • ... ... •« ... -43,276,381,382,414 

Beautiful houses ... ... ... ... ... 166 

459 



460 INDEX. 

Beech, age and growth of 307, 243, 335 

and oak mast as food for swine 249 

stubs, how dug up 239 

Beeches, how felled 242 

injurious to hedges 247 

Bell Bar 157, 159 

glasses 8 

Birds and fishes, how best preserved in a collection 51 

Births and deaths, list of 61 

Bolthead ... 458 

Boots ... ... , 53 

Bored tree-stems for water pipes in London ... 64 

Botanic garden, Chelsea 106 

Box bushes on Steps Hill 260 

Bout, defined note 251 

Brackens 207, 369 

Bread 88 

Breakfast 13 

Brick and stud walls 181,270,359 

battlements to church towers 156 

bridges, over ditches ... ... ... ... ... ... 23 

dust for polishing metals ... ... ... ... ... 220 

Broadcast (sowing) 43, 275, 400, 401 

land 208, 213 

Broadland, 91, 151, 165, 184, 247, 261, 263, 271, 283, 285, 300, 309, 
362, 365. 

Broad Windsor beans 90 

Broken glass on walls... ... ... ... ... ... ... 29 

Broom 141 

Buckwheat 368 

Buckshead spring 285 

Bugs formerly rare in England 51 

Burial at sea 455 

Burnet moth 409 

Burns, remedy for 123 

Buschenfelt, MS., cited note 74 

Butter 37i, 373*4*4 

Cabbage butterflies 457 

Capstan 453 

Carrington (? Cheddington) 276 






INDEX. 461 



Carrying the meadows, or haymaking 

Carthage, a stone from 

Cast 

Catesby, Natural History of Carolina 

Caves in the chalk 

Cedar of Lebanon 

Cellars and rooms under streets 

Ceremonies at the beginning of May 

Chalk 

and chalk hills at Northfleet 

and flint, notes on 

as manure 

hard, at Ivinghoe 

eggs 

fossils . 

in house walls 

pebbles 

water system, analysed 

thickness of soil on 

use of 

Channel, voyage down the ... 

Cheese, butter, etc 

Chelsea 

Botanic garden at 

Chelsea, description of 

Cherry trees 

orchards 

Cheshunt 

Chips, saving of 

Church, ruined at Shorne 

Churches (various) 

Church roofs of straw or ling 

Church-towers, shapes 

Churn ... 

Clay, how prepared for brick-making 

Clouted shoon 

Clover 

sain foin, ray-grass, sown as fodder for cattle 

smack ... ... ... ... 

Coal, use of 

Collinson (Peter), F.R.S 



• •• 


... ou 

... 73 


... 


... 208 


17, 114 


118, 119 


... 


423, 428 


... 


... 40 




... 85 




... 31 




358, 414 




... 417 




... 338 




186, 412 




... 279 




... 427 


278, 296 


34i, 427 




... 374 




... 386 


... 


... 441 


... 


... 332 




... 415 




450-458 


... 


... 414 




90-1 1 1 


... 


... 106 


... 


... 96 


... 


... 374 




.... 374 


... 


157, 179 




... 229 




... 402 




349. 402 




... 303 




... 155 




... 37i 




... 57 




... 244 


203, 


213, 440 




151, 412 




... 413 




... 137 


17, 66, 


57, 81, 87 



462 



Comedy House, London . ... 
Common fields... „. ... „„ ... ..... 

Cords of wood... .... ... ,., c ... , : ., ... ... , ; ... 

Coronation stone, inscription on 

Country between Little Gaddesden and St. Albans 

m — between Woodford and Little Gaddesden 

— — north of London 



Cows.. ... ... ... ... ... 

Cowherd ,. ... t4 , ... .,« ... 

Cowdung as. manure ... 
Cranberries sown in a garden 

Crampoons... ,..,... 

Cross-furrows ... ,.. ... ,., ... 
Crows' gold. . ... ...... ... , ... ... 

Cuckoo ... 5 ... .... , ... 

Cumberland , ... ... . .... ... 

Cure for sore eyes ... ..... ... 



.. ... .;.: ;.. 417 

210, 261, 265, 274, 28r, 289 
.. „,, ... ... ... 229 

18 

... 146 
. ... 178 

■ t .:. ... 37 
. ... 206 
. ... 266 

..; • l86,-2.l8 

.; '...;,.. ^>8 
... ,..--233 
.*.. ......238 

295,312 

... 3-34 
303, 306 
... -L96 



DactyLis Glomerata ... . ... ... . , ... 

Dairy,, the ... . ... ... ... c . 

Dale, Samuel, inheritor of Ray's herbarium 

Deal, described... ... ... „ . ... „ 

. privateers ... ... ,, u ., ... oss ... „, 

Deciduous trees .,«, ... ....... ... e ., ... , : . ... 

Denton, bog, at... ... ... ... ... f „, ... 

-— — rr- ruined church c , ... c ,., ... ... ., 

Ditch earth, as manure f ., r ... ,„ ... . 

Dog ... ... ... „. ... t 

Dover ... ft0 ... ,,« ... ... „., 

Drill ... es . ... ...... 

DukeofArgyle ... ... .... ... ... 

r house and garden at Whitton 

visit to ... 

Bridgwater 

Cumberland's birthday ... ... 

Richmond ... , ... 



Dulwich, mineral well at 

Dungeness 

Dust. on roads, to prevent. . ... 
Dyers' weed,, near. London, ... 
— i — , Graves/end 



. £0 

... 37o 
... 198 
... 451 
... 452 
... 136 
... 396 
350,374 
250, .275 
... 140 
... 454 
... 165 
... 113 
... 57 
31 
221, 260 
.... 155 
... 94 
... 56 
... 456 
37,40 
... 61 
— . 3.77 



INDEX. 



463 



Earth-walls around meadows, market gardens, ,<&c. ... ... 27 

Eaton Bray ... ... ... ... ... .... ... 287,299 

Edwards, George, F.R.S., ornithologist 19 

Edder 380 

Eddlesborough, Edgeboro' ... 286, 312 

Ellis, farmer, Little Gaddesden 186, 188, 194, 341 

Ellis's four wheel drill-plough 188,231 

Elm, the ... ... 86, 387 

England, climate of 125 

English farmer, advantages over Swedish .. ... 132 

women's costumes, habits 326,337 

Epping Forest ... ... ... ... 123 

- trees in ... ... ... ... ... ... 123 

Essex opposite Gravesend ... ... 357-370 

Evergreen trees in hedges ... ... ... 135 

Exchangeable slips 261,265,274,289,352 



Fairlight 

Fairlop fair 

oak 

Farms, houses, barns, day labourers, Ac- 
Farm servants ... ... ... ..." 

Fences and hedges ... ... ... 

Fields, how arranged ... ... ... : 

Fire in London 

Flakes ... ... ... ... 

Flat stone 

Flint 

use of ... ... 

notes on 

sand, its use 

Flint even on one side, a 

Flints, for walls and road making ... 

Floors 

Fodder, different kinds of, for horses 

Footplough 

Forcing beds ... 

Four-thorough-land 

Four-thorough-stitches 

Friesland, now lost 

Fruit trees on walls ... ... 



-41, 6g, 



456 

162 
161 
362 
205 
380, 398 
150 
88 

364 

227, 267 

199 

349 
422, 426 

257 

244 

155 

12 

253 
263 

8,174 

131, 165, 204 

251, 309 

.. ... ... 114 

,- 330 



464 

Fuel 

Fulham Bridge 

Furze 

to burn bricks with 

as fuel 



Gaffles 

Garden, how to lay out 

Gates 

description of 

Geese ... 

Glass frames .... 

Goats ... 

Good institutions in London 

Graham, F.R.S. ... 

Grain or tine 

Grassland (see meadows) 

Grass, weeds, &c, in forcing beds ... 
Gravesend 

Gravesend, described 

the soil, thickness of 

Grey pea 

Gypsies 

Hainault Forest 

Hampstead visited 

Hand-shears 

Hanoverian rats 

Harrows 

Harrowing near Little Gaddesden 

Hats of horsehair 

Haver-bread 

Hay, grasses and plants in 

Haylathe ... -.. ■ 

with moveable roof 

Haymaking, hay stacks 388 

Haystacks 210, 360, 389 

Hay, to prevent spontaneous combustion of 223 

How to arrange that the hay may be green and fragrant ... 329 
Hearth, shape of ... 235 



... 


... 


355 






35 






144 






249 






260 






394 






68 






218 






168 






372 


... 




8 


... 




207 




... 


62 






53 






394 






412 






F74 


343-355; 


. 369 


-449 
448 

382 

253 




154 


, 161 


note 


162 




... 


47 






360 






300 






147 




... 


193 






26 






88 


130, 225, 


307 


,378 


210, 


217 


, 364 
223 






INDEX. 465 

Hedges (Woodford) ... ... ,== ... = .- ... ...... ... 128 

— cut down as fuel ... ... ... ... ... ... 246 

-of beech ... ... ... ... ... 279 

round arable fields 366,398 

used in gardens ... ........... ... 134 

Hedge, how a new hedge is laid down ... ... 313 

how an old hedge is renewed, &c. 318 

Hedgehogs ... ■- - ... ... ... = = = ... - 217 

Help for priests' children . ... . : ... ... . ... . ... ... 30 

Hemel Hempstead ... . ... . ... ... ... ... ... •.-.-. ... 180 

Hertfordshire plough ... « ... = :. ... ... . ... 238,250,263 

Hills round .London, what soil =.= ... . =.= ... . ... 47 

Hillocks, origin of 163, 379 

Hjarne (Urban) cited... ... ... ... note 74 

Holly ... ... ... . ... ... ... ... : 139,219,255, 

age ... ... .... .... 333 

Holy Days, celebration of, in England ... - 325 

Hops ... ... . : ... ... ... ^ - ... 1-. ... 205 

Horses, how put to, driven, &c. ,. : ... .. ... - ... 10 

Horse beans ... . ... ... .... ... 277 

Horse-leg knuckle-bones, use of ... ... ... 67 

troughs... ... . ... ... 156 

Houses, construction of ... ... 9 

arrangement of ... ... ... . 363 

roofs, floors, chimneys ... 181-3,358 

— ; — - of Parliament ... . ... 18 

Hudnal ... ... ... ... ... 307 

Hurdles ... ... 201 

Hurdle-harrows, or drags ... ,. ... 147 

Hurlock... ... . ... ... 153,262,279,291,292,313,340 

Ice-legs... ... ... ... 67 

Iron nail in middle of tree ... ... ... 234 

pyrites ,,, ... ...... ... 295,312 

Isle of Portland ............ ... ... .-. ... ... ... 458 

Wight ... ... ... ... ... ... 457,458 

Ivinghoe, visit to ... ... 255 

description of 269 

1 — arable fields and other soil 273 

1 change of soil 280 

_ Common 197, 256 

2H 



466 

Ivy ... , ... 

as food for sheep 



Jellyfish 

Joints in chalk ... 

Kentish plough 

Kerf ... ... 

Kipe 

Kitchen garden seeds 

Kype 

* Lands/ 261 ; • exchangeable slips/ 

Land springs 

Land suitable for sheep pasture 

Landscape, in Kent 

Larch, how to grow ... 

Lathe 

Lawson, Captain 

Lead pencil, to write with 

Lessness 

Lime burnt from chalk 

from chalk 

process of burning described 

from ordinary flint . 

Links 

Little Gaddesden 

Reached and described 

Bricks from the yellow earth 

Description of harrows used 

Men's duties and habits 

Mole-hills cast up 

The soil at 

Lodge ... . ... 

Logworms ... 

London and Suburbs 

London, great fire in 

Bridge waterworks 

Long furrows 

Lucas (F. W.) ... 19, 



".'.. ".'.. 


... 04 
... 269 





... 310 


... 


... 457 





424, 425 


... ... 


... 401 





... 242 





... 159 





... 24 


... 


... 159 


265, 274, 300, 


301, 352 


... 


... 281 





... 277 





... 42 





... 95 


9> 171, 329, 


333, 359 


... 


... 448 





... 19 





... 345 





... 304 




... 257 





... 429 


... 


... 277 


... 


... 64 


... 


178-342 


... 


... 180 





... 245 





... 332 




... 333 





... 335 


180, 183, 193, 


203, 236 


9, 171, 


333, 359 


... 


... 453 


... 


... 6-89 




... 88 




... 73 




... 237 


note ; 20, note ; 


115, note. 



INDEX. 467 

Lucerne 214, 414 

Lumbricus marinus, logworms 452 

Malt house, Little Gaddesden 254 

" The Malthouse," ruin of church at Shorne ... ... ... 402 

Manure, how carted ... ... ... ... ... 150 

manuring meadows 54, 328, 354,358, 365, 379 

Maple pea 216,247,253 

Manuring ploughed fields 245 

Marcasite ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 76, Tj 

Market gardens, 8, 33 ; at Southwark, 43 ; at Chelsea 90 

their fences, cultivation, &c 33 

Marie 144 

Meadows and their grass-growth round London 28, 49 

use of in Middlesex 81 

and pastures 215 

Mice, to prevent getting into ricks 227 

Middleton, John 80 

Miller, Philip, the Botanist, 19, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97; memoir ... 108 

Miller's Gardener's Dictionary 93, 96, no, in, 131 

Mineral waters and houses near them 56 

Mistletoe, how sown 67 

Mitchell, John, M.D., F.R.S 32, 39, 116, 117, 119, 120 

Moles ... 164, 214, 335, 379 

Monument, the 24 

Mornington, Earl of , 177 

Mortimer, Dr. Cromwell, Secretary of Royal Society 19, 61, 114, 115 
Moss _ ... 186, 409 

enough on the chalk-soil 241 

rapid growth of. 174 

Mouldboard 165, 239 

Mounting steps 300, 365 

Mushrooms, to pickle «. 447 

Mutilation of Ray's Herbarium «. 108 

Nettle-salad ... 258 

New River 64, 72, 179 

Northfleet Church 350 . 

— section at 385 

Oaks, age of 243,331 

2H 2 



4 68 



INDEX. 



Oak bark for tanners ... 

Oats 

Old chalk pits 

Orchards of cherry, apple and walnut trees (Gravesend) 

and vegetable market gardens (Chelsea) 

Outhouses 

Ox-horn fences 

quicks for road making 

Paralysis, from punch drinking 
Parish, arrangements of 
Parliament, Session 1748 
Pasture good for sheep ... 

Patches of different soils 

Patting 

Payment in kind 

Pea fowl ... e 

Pease ... ... ... 6,43,165, 

land 

Pebblestones 155, 161, 164, 385 

Peckham, Peter Collinson's garden at 

Penny Post in London 

Perennial grasses rare in Virginia ... 

Peruques ... ... 

Petrifications in chalk 

Pipes in chalk ... ... 

Plants, enjoyed by swine 

on earth-walls 

j in flower at Woodford, March 8th 

— — —Little Gaddesden, March 28th 

the luxuriance of 

useful for banks 

Plot, Dr., cited... 
Plough, Essex... ... 

Hertfordshire... 

Ploughs, woodwork in 
Ploughbeam ... 
Plucking live geese ... 
Plumsted ... - ... 

Porpoises 

Portland Stone, description of 



208, 
407, 



,. 248 

.. 361 

1- 247 

.. 396 

,. 90 

.. 359 
70, 71 

.. 73 

,. 119 
.. 209 
.. 94 
■ • 305 
.. 280 
13, 326 
246 
12 
216, 369 
246 
li8, 419 
66 

63 
120 

52 
278 
419 
156 

70 
127 
198 

45 

59 
152 
165 
165, 250 

239 
250 
372 
345 
455 
21 



INDEX. 469 

Postchaises 63 

Price of provisions in war time ... ... '.;. 56 

Puddingstone 'V, 148, 244 

Punch, harm and use of ... 16, 119 

Putney Heath and Wimbledon Common 36 

Quaker's Service 71 

Rabbits, their dwellings 

slaughtering and gelding of 

wild 

Racks , 

Raddles 

Rags, as manure on arable 

Raisin wine 

A milder ditto ... 

Ranelagh House 

Ray's Herbarium 

Reeds, as screens in market gardens 

Reins (see "Acre reins") 

Renlosta, a grass useful for banks ... 

Resting stone 

Return for each bushel sown 
Rick frame 
Ricks, on props 
Rickpeg 

Rickstadde 

Ridge-acre-land 

Ridge-half-acre-land 

Ridgelands 

Riding 

Rigs(s^Rygg) 

River Lea 

Roads, 381 ; how repaired 

Road dirt, use of 

watering, 37 ; with shovels ... 

Rochester, description of 

Bridge 

Rock crystals in flint 

Rod 

Roller, the 



... 


... 


f58, 185 


... 


... 


... 234 


... 


... 


... 185 


... 


... 


251, 264 


... 


... 


... 398 


... 


... 


265, 309 


... 


... 


... 383 




... 


... 384 


... 




... 94 


... 


... 


... 108 






... 9, 32 


... 


261, 


271, 290 
... 60 
227, 267 
... 328 
... 268 


149, 


227, 256 


267, 286 
211, 390 




227, 


268, 287 
271, 289 
... 271 


... 


273, 


275, 276 
... 388 
... 251 
... 122 

... 32 
143, 266 

... 40 
... 404 
... 405 
... 427 
211, 391 
... 269 



47° INDEX. 

Rooks 

Roots, to keep in winter „ 

Rope dancers 

Royal Society, visit to 

Running water through cellars keeps beer fresh 

Rural economy in Essex, 172; in Cumberland 

Rushes, for seats of chairs ' .'. 

Rye 

rare around London 

use of ... , 

grass ... 

Ryggs, or riggs' ... ... 43,157,251, 

Sainfoin ... ... ... ... 151,213,366, 

Salad, how prepared .; 

Saltings 

Samphire, its use ... 

Sandpits, strata in ... "... 

Saws, sawpits 

Sawing of beeches and the use of saw-dust 

Saw-wort 

Seakale, as food 

Seagulls in gardens , 

Sea-walls (Thames) , 

Sea-worms 

Seeds lie long unscathed in the earth 

Sermons in English Church 

Service, Church 

Session of Parliament, 1748 ... 

Settles 

Sheep ... 

in England ... 

in folds on barley- fields 

eat weeds 

folds, on arable ... 

■ pastured on wheat-sprouts 



Sherard, the mutilator of Ray's Herbarium 

Shoes 

labouring men' vS 

Sights in London 

Sign of the weather from daisies ... 



141, 


353 


. 


3ii 




417 




17 




299 




306 


. 


157 


359. 365, 


415 


. 


55 


230, 


,415 




151 


272, 276; 


, 362 


412,439; 


444 


. 


85 


. 


349 




445 


406; 


1 407 




219 




242 




379 




162 


. i6 3j 


1 259 




344 




452 


. 


92 




325 


. 


325 


. 


94 




287 


,. i8 5j 


, 199 




139 




263 


,. 


44 




301 




288 




108 




53 




244 





17 





3ii 



INDEX. 

Sile 

Sir Isaac Newton's tomb 

Sir Hans Sloane 

Sloane's library 

museum , 

Sloane's, Lady, grave 

epitaph 

Six-bout-land 

Skeel, skeeling , 

Sled 

Snails, eaten by swine 

abundance of 

Snakes, handling of 

Snake-bite, remedy for 

Soil 193, 

influence on plants 

thickness of 

Soot as manure 

Sparrows build in caves 

Speel 

Spider 

Spring-wells, want of, round London 

Little Gaddesden 

Springs near Great Gaddesden 

— — rare near Gravesend 

Spring, late 

cold 

Squirrel's tails, use of 

St. Albans 

St. Botolph's Church, Northfleet 

St. Dunstan's, Stepney 

St. Mary's, Denton 

St. James's Park 

St. Paul's, the dome of 

St. Peter and St. Paul's, Milton 

Stapled bark 

Steel Mills, use of, to grind malt and peas... 

Stitches 

Stone rollers 

Stoves in orangeries 

" Stmlflinta" (fish scales) in chalk 



471 

... 37o 

45 

97 

102 

100 

98 

99 

... 165 

287, 364 

10 

220 

290 

38 

196 

203, 236, 241, 257, 400 

50 

259, 383 

248 

428 

note 157 

409 

- 72 

284 

154 

441 

56 

160 

73 

179 

350 

73 

350, 374 

86 

26, 42 

394 

249 

255 

43, 151, 165, 204, 369 

141 

92 

427 



47 2 INDEX. 

Strata terrae ... ... 48, 152, 254, 385, 397, 406, 407, 419, 420, 421 

Straw as fuel ... 276 

— manure 



- brackens, &c, prepared as manure 

-hats 

■ of barley, wheat, pease, beans, &c, as manure 

• plaiting ... ... 

-thatch ... ... 



Sunday, how spent in England 

Supper ... ... t ... ... 

Swine ... 

Sword ; worn at Court 

Strata in chalk pits near Little Gaddesden 

Tares, &c, sown for horses ... 

Tarring Church accounts 

Tatternel ... 

Ten-bouts-land 

Terras 

Tegskifte, "lands" originally " exchangeable slips" (see synonyms) 

Thames, banks in estuary of. 

river 

chalkpits on banks of 

■ earth walls on banks of 

landscape round 

reed on banks of 

marshes ... ... ... ... 

■ — meadows on 

— : — sheep and horses on 

Thatching ... ... ... 

Thermometers, comparison of 

Thermometrical observations in houses 

Thistles... 

Three-bouts-land 

Three- wheeled wagon 

Tilbury Fort 

Tilney, my Lord ... 

Tilt-boat (Gravesend) 

Tines 

Tobacco flavoured with aniseed 
Totternhoe stone-mine 





... 150 


... 


... 266 


... 


... 337 




... 251 


... 


... 337 




201, 283 




... 325 


... 


... 16 


... 


387,411 




... 53 


... 


152, 254 


44i 247 


, 414, 440 


... 


note 157 


... 


... 290 




... 158 




... 76 


synony 


ms) 300 




3 




3 


... 


5, 363 




... 344 




4 


... 


5 


344 


: 357, 361 




... 378 




5 




210, 390 


... 


... 105 


... 


7 




354, 38o 


... 


... 157 


... 


... 284 




... 449 


... 


... 175 




343, 415 


... 


-. 394 




... 195 


... 


... 290 



473 



Townland's land 

Trees, deciduous, in hedges 

evergreen, in hedges ... 

the planting of ... 

Tree-roots as fuel 

Tulip tree 

Turnips 

how to treat 

Turnip-tops used for salad or as greens 

Tussilago ... 

Tussocks 
Two-bout-land 

Valmont de Bomare (cited) .. 
Vauxhall 

Veal to make white ... 

Vicia sativa, or tares ... 

Villages, arrangement of 

Vines ... 

Vitriol, the manufacture and boiling of 
Voyage, from Gromstad to England 
down Channel 

Wallerius, J. G. 

Waltham Abbey 

Cross 

Wanstead House 

Walk from Gravesend to Rochester 

Warner, Richard 

Water used for cooking 

Watercart 

Watercress 

Watergangs 

Water supply to London 

and wind mills 

troughs ... 

Wattled hurdles 

Weld 

Well in the solid chalk, a 

Wellesley, Mrs. 

West wind strong in England, the ... 



... 


... 272 


... 


... 136 


... 


... 135 


... 


... 131 




147, 229 




... 179 


... 


... 441 


... 


... 230 




... 217 


... 


... 334 


... 


... 379 


165, 


251, 261 


note 39 


... 


... 65 


... 


... 372 


44; 247, 


414, 440 




... 209 




... 374 




... 74 


... 


1 


... 


... 450 


... 


... 75 


157, 


159. 178 




157; 179 




... 175 




... 394 


... 17, 


131, 141 


... 


... 148 


... 


... 37 




... 286 




... 347 




64, 72 




... 300 


... 


... 360 


... 


... 398 




61, 377 




... 405 




... 177 


... 


... 401 



474 



INDEX. 



Westminster Abbey ... ... 

What you may call it... ... 

Wheat 

stalks, length and greenness of 

Whitaker, Wm., F.R.S 

Wild oxen (Virginia) ... 

Williams, farmer, Little Gaddesden... 

Windmills 

Windmill hill (Gravesend), section at 

Winnowing machine 

Winter-cress, for salad 

Winter food for bees 

Woods, trees in ... 

Woodford ... ... 

Woodford, country between London and Woodford 

—description of 

hedges at 

Woodlouse 

Woolwich, section at... 

Yard of butter 

Yards to each house 

Yokes for pigs 



... 18 
... 398 
- 43 
... 281 
153, 387 
... 113 
187, 245 
... 401 
406, 407 
... 171 
... 48 
... 288 
... 214 
121-177 
... 121 
... 166 
... 128 
... 409 



373 

85 
387 




BOTANICAL INDEX. 



Acer campestre 

Achillea millefolium ... 

Aconitum napellus 

Agrostis capillaris 

' vulg. var. aristata ... 

Aira (Holcus Mollis) 

Allium fistulosum 

porrum 

schoenoprasum 

Alopecurus pratensis ... 

Anthoxanthum odoratum 

Anthriscus vulgaris 

Anthrocera filipendulae 

Atithyllis vulneraria ... 

Apple trees 

Arbutus 

Arctium lappa 

Arundo (see Phragmites) 

Ash 181, 209, 

Asparagus 

Aspen ... 

Avena pratensis 

Barbarea vulgaris 48 

Beech 124, 209, 214, 221, 247, 249, 279, 309, 335, 367 

Bellis perennis 127,198,309,311 

Birch 396 

Bird cherry 135, 209 

Blackberry (see Rubus fruticosus). 
Box (see Buxus). 
Brackens (see Pteris). 

Briza media ... 226,309 

475 



... 34, 


214, 395 


130, 


227, 309 


... 


... 45 


... 


130, 308 




... 227 




... 67 




... 34 


... 


- 34 




... 34 


28, 49, 5 


[, 81, 378 




130, 308 




... 61 




... 409 


... 


... 225 


... 


... 137 


... 


... 27 




... 45 




5 


221, 330 


367, 395 




9 


... 


... 395 


130, 226, 


308, 395 



476 BOTANICAL INDEX. 

Bromus, var., secalini ... 29, 49, 51, 81 

Broom I2 5 

Bryum 174 

Burdock 45 

Butcher's broom 125 

Buxus sempervirens 136, 260 

Carduus crispus 130 

Carpinus betulus 124, 128, 136, 214, 367 

Castanea equina 87 

Cauliflower ... ... , 8 

Centaurea jacea ... ... ... ... ... ... 226,308 

Cerastium viscosum 130, 309 

Chrysanthemum leucanthemum ... ... ... ... 130, 226 

Cissium arvensis 380 

Convolvulus arvensis 60 

Cornus sanguinea 395, 428 

Corylus avellana 128, 137 

Crambe maritima ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 162 

Cratoegus oxyacantha ... 121, 124, 128, 137, 160, 181, 214, 221 

Crocus vernus 127 

Cucubalus 352 

Cynosurus cristatus 130, 226, 308 

Cytisus scoparius 125 

Dactylis glomerata ... ... 60, 130, 226, 308 

Daphne laureola ... ... ... ... ... 125, 198, 214 

Dogrose... 121, 124, 128, 160, 209, 214 

Dogwood ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 395 

Draba verna 198 

Elder 128, 395 

Elm, see Ulmus. 

Euonymus Europaeus 395 

Equisetum pratense ... ... ... ... ... ..., ... 309 

Fagus Sylvatica (see Beech) 

Fennel 355 

Festuca elatior 308 

rubra 226, 309 

Fceniculum 355 



BOTANICAL INDEX. 477 

Fragaria vesca 198 

Fumaria ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 92 

Furze (see Ulex). 

Genista spinosa (see Ulex Europeaus) 127 

Guelder rose 428 

Galanthus nivalis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 127 

Galium aparine 45 

Hawthorn, (see Cratoegus) 

Hazel 128, 137, 198, 214, 221 

Hedera helix 121, 124, 154, 209, 214, 269, 310, 374, 395 

Hieracium ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 226, 308 

Holcus mollis 226,308,378 

Holly (see Ilex). 

Hordeum hexastichum ... ... ... ... ... ... 362 

murinum ... ... ... ... ... ... 60, 348 

secalinum ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 378 

Hornbeam (see Carpinus). 

Horse chestnut 87 



Ilex aquifolium, 121, 123, 128, 132, 135, 139, 181, 209, 214, 219, 225, 333. 
Ivy (see Hedera). 



Juncus effusus ... 

tenax 

Juniper 



Lactuca 

Lamium purpureum 

Larix 

Lathyrus (sylvestris) pratensi: 

Laurustinus 

Leontodon taraxacum 

Lichen rangiferinus 

Ligustrum 

Lime tree 

Linum catharticum 

Lolium perenne 





... 157 




-. 379 




... 396 


.. ... 


... 85 





127, 198 




... 95 




226, 309 




... 135 


... 


198, 308 




... 36 


.. 348, 367, 


395, 428 


136, 


209, 214 




227, 309 


51, 130, 151, 


152, 308 







121 




225, 


308 
137 


34, 


214, 


395 




50, 


152 
121 

136 
124 
112 



478 BOTANICAL INDEX. 

Lonicera caprifolium ... 

Lotus ... 

Malus 

Maple ... 

Medicago lupulina 

Mespilus 

germanica 

Mountain ash 

Myrica 

Narcissus pseudo-narcissus 198 

Nasturtium officinale 286 

Oak (see Quercus). 

Onopordum acanthium ... ... ... ... ... ... 354 

Papaver rhceas 

Phillyrea 

Phleum pratense ... 

Phragmites communis 

Pinus abies ... 

sylvestris 

Plantago media 

Poa angustifolia 

■ compressa 

pratensis 

Poplar 

Primula veris. Primrose 

Privet ... 

Prunella vulgaris 

Prunus avium 

spinosa , 

Pteris aquilina 

Quercus 124,129,181,209,214,331,367,395 

ilex 136 

Radishes 9 

Ranunculus acris 130 

bulbosus 352 

Ficaria ... 128, 198 





344, 


352 
135 


130 


226j 


308 




5, 


378 
132 
132 


130, 


227, 


308 


... 


130, 


308 
61 
81 

214 


... 


128, 


198 


348, 367, 


395, 


428 
309 


135, 


209, 


214 


... 


34, 


137 


207, 


304, 


369 



BOTANICAL INDEX. 479 

Reed 5, 378 

Renlosta (unidentified) 6o, 6i 

Reseda luteola 61,377 

Ribes grossularia 137 

Rosa rubiginosa 137 

vulgaris 124 

Rowan tree 124 

Rubus fruticosus 121, 124, 128, 181, 209, 214, 357, 395 

Rumex acetosella 130,308 

crispus 130 

Ruscus aculeatus 125,127 

Rye grass (see Lolium). 

Salicornia herbacea ... 445 

Salix ... 198, 209, 214 

Sambucus nigra 128, 137 

Scabiosa ... 409 

Scirpus maritimus ... 378 

Scotch fir ... ... 132, 214 

Seakale... 162 

Senecio vulgaris 127 

Serratula tinctoria 227 

arvensis 380 

Silene inflata ... 352 

Sinapis arvensis ... 44 

Sloe .... 34, 137, 181, 209, 214, 367, 395 

Sorbus aucuparia 124 

Spartium scoparium 125 

Spindle tree 395 

Spruce 132 

Spurge laurel 125 

Spircea filipendula 227 

Stellaria media 127, 156 

Sweet briar 298 

Syringa 121 

Taxus baccata 34,121,132,135 

Thornbushes 428 

Tilia Europcea 136 

Thyme 298 



480 



BOTANICAL INDEX. 



Trifolium pratense 

repens 

Triticum hybernum 

^— repens 

Tulip-tree ... 
Tussilago farfara 



Ulex Europaeus ... 124, 135, 144 

Ulmus Campestris 

Urtica dioica ... ... ... 

urens ... ... 

Vaccinium oxycoccos 

Veronica agrestis 

Viburnum 

— — tinus {see Laurustinus). 

Vicia. cracca ... 

- — sativa ... ... 

Viscum ... 

Watercress „ ... 

Wintercress .... ... ; ... . 

Yew ... ... „ ... 

Yucca ... ... . ... ,,., ... . 



130: 



44, 60j 



195, 214, 249 
121, 128, 136 



151, 226, 308 
130, 226, 308 

... 395 
1, 61, 348, 377 

... 179 
198, 309, 334 

304, 355, 366 
181, 367, 395 
45, 156 
... 156 

... 68 
... 198 
... 428 

... 227 

355, 414 
... 67 

... 286 



34, 121 
... 116 




&5Q6, 



Diprose, Bateman & Co., Printers, Sheffield Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C. 







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